The Runt and the Rat (currently under rewrite)
by SteamPunkWolf
Summary: I should start by introducing myself, my name is Runt. I have a brother and a sister both of them are alphas while I'm an omega. This is the story of how I met a mute albino pup and how we grew up together.
1. Chapter 1 The new pup in the pack

Chapter 1 New Pup In The Pack

Runt's POV

"YOU GUYS WAIT UP!" I yelled at the top of my lungs at my siblings who were way ahead of me. We were running to our friends Fleet and Magril, we were suppose to meet at their den.

"Well maybe you should go faster!" Claudette yelled back at me as she and Stinky sped up. Sometimes it really sucked being the only omega. By the time I got there they were already playing with each other.

"What took you so long?" Stinky taunted, I flashed him a death stare and stormed off. This wasn't the first time had picked on me because I was the runt of the litter and it was getting old fast. Stupid alphas, I muttered to myself. I began the walk back thinking I could hang out with Daria when I heard rustling in some berry bushes. And saw a small white tail pop out from the bottom of them, except for the occasionally spot of blue juice it was pure white.

"Hey." I said and a pup walked out. His fur was pure white except for his mouth which was blue and some other spots on his fur and paws, his eyes were blood red, and his mane moved towards the left almost hanging in his left eye. He waved, and pointed to the berries. "Um what? Where are you from?" He pointed behind him. I walked past the bushes and found a small cave barely big enough to fit one wolf. "Do you have anyone living with you?" I asked and he shook his head no. I looked back in the direction of my siblings and friends and decided to take this new pup home. "What's your name?" I asked he stopped and grabbed a stick and drew a picture of a rat in the ground. "So it's Rat?" He nodded his head yes. "Follow me." I said and he kept pace with me as we walked back to my den. My parents noticed the new pup and looked confused.

"Um Runt who's your friend?" Mom asked as we walked in.

"This is Rat I found him on my way back, he was eating berries." Dad looked at me funny. As mom questioned him.

"Do you have any family?" He shook his head no. "Where are you from?" He pointed the way we came from. Mom took him outside probably to go see Lilly to either clean him up or to find out why he won't speak.

"Runt I know we allowed Princess and Daria into the pack but a pup?" He said to me.

"Well to be fair I didn't ask you to take him in." I replied my dad rolled his eyes.

"To be fair Daria and Princess are grown wolves who can take care of themselves for the most part." I knew he meant Daria's blindness. "A pup needs a family and to be raised." He replied I knew where he was going with this. After a really long talk Lilly, my mom, and Rat came back. He was cleaned off and still silent.

"Well as far as we can tell he is mute." Lilly stated. She went on to say he was albino which was probably why his pack left him.

"Sp what do we do with him?" Mom asked

"Garth and I could take him in, but I would have to clear it with him first." Lilly suggested much to my mother's surprise.

"Are you sure Lilly?" She asked

"Yes." Lilly went off to find Garth along with my parents giving me time to play with Rat. I moved first and tackled him like I did with my siblings. He caught on quickly and wrestled me to the ground. Before getting off me and running off, I chased after him. We weaved through the trees as fast as we could occasionally bumping into each other.

"Runt slow down!" I looked behind me to see Stinky catching up to me. I stuck my tongue out at him as we went into a turn, Rat went to fast and crashed coming out of it. While the rest of us preformed the spin out and ran to see if he was ok.

"Rat are you hurt?" I asked as he stood up, he shook his head no.

"Who is this?" Claudette asked after I explained everything to them, they were skeptical but I guess it came with being an alpha. They tried getting him to talk for the next several minutes.

"None of this is working." Fleet said

"Maybe he actually is mute." Stinky replied as Lilly, Garth, and my mom walked over to us.

"Hello Rat we met earlier do you remember?" Aunt Lilly asked Rat nodded his head yes. "This is my husband Garth and my sister Kate." Rat nodded to show he was following along with them. "If you want you can stay with me and my husband in the tall grass." Rat nodded once again and walked off with them.

"It's getting late Fleet, you and Magril should probably be going home." Mom said

"See you tomorrow guys." Fleet said and he and his sister ran off.


	2. Chapter 2 Language Barrier

Chapter 2 Language Barriers

Lilly's POV

"Well this is home." Garth told our new pup as he walked in. The pup looked around through the tall grass, he was more curious than Runt and his siblings. He sniffed the grass and felt it with his paws as though he had never seen anything like it before. I snickered a little as he hid in it, Garth found it amusing to. It wasn't too long before he tired himself out and fell asleep, I laid next to him as he slept.

"I wonder what Humphrey was so worried about he doesn't seem like to much of a hand full." Garth said he had a point Humphrey acted like it the world was going end.

"It's only been one night Garth." I said he nuzzled before going to bed himself, I soon followed. In the morning Garth went out with the other alphas leaving me with Rat.

"Good morning." I said as he woke up. He looked like he didn't know how to respond to that. "Just point to the sunrise to say good morning." I told him and he did. I guess I had to help him learn to communicate without words today.

"Hey aunt Lilly." It was my nephews and nieces. Rat waved to them.

"Hey Rat we were going to go watch the hunt do you want to come with us?" Runt asked, Rat look at me and I gestured for him to go.

Runt's POV

The four of us ran off together towards the cliff that over looked the hunting grounds. My mom was hunting with Garth and Hutch. Rat followed behind us as we stood on the edge of the cliff.

"Wow one day I'm going to be as good as mom." Claudette said as our mother moved into position. Rat walked over next to me as Garth moved next to mom. He looked down in the valley and pointed at Hutch.

"That's Hutch he's a beta in our pack." I replied

"Hey Runt maybe we should go introduce Rat to everyone." Stinky suggested it sounded like a good idea so we left the hunting ground and headed to our grandparents.

"Grandma, Grandpa." Stinky called out as we walked in they came to the entrance along with Lilly.

"Hello is this Rat?" Grandma asked as she examined our albino friend.

"Yes, we were going to show him around the territory." Claudette said

"I felt it was my job since I am the future leader." Stinky said we all rolled our eyes at his comment except for Rat who didn't know he did this all the time.

"Well alright but careful." Aunt Lilly said before we ran off. First we went to go see my dad's friends and their mates. Luckily for us we didn't have to go far because they were all at the berry patch.

"Hey Runt, Claudette, Stinky, and….white pup…." Mooch said as we walked down, next to him was his mate Reba she was a vegetarian.

"This is Rat he's new." Claudette said leaving out the important part.

"What's your name?" Janice asked as she and Shakey walked over. Rat looked at me for help.

"His name is Rat he can't talk." I answered for him.

"Ok…" Shakey responded probably wasn't sure how to communicate with Rat.

"Well Rat these are the omegas in our pack. Janice, Reba, Shakey, Mooch, Salty, and Sweets you already know the only other ones." Stinky said. Then we moved on to the beta wolves of the pack. After that it was the other pups in the pack and our friends, it got late and we took Rat home.

Lilly's POV

Garth and I were in the middle of eating when Runt came back with Rat. Rat waved by to Runt, Stinky, and Claudette before sitting next to me.

"So how was your day?" Garth asked completely forgetting that he couldn't speak. Rat looked at me for help.

"Um here paw up if it was good and paw down if it was bad." I showed him and he copied both ways before finally putting his paw up.

"I heard you met some people today." Garth said Rat nodded yes. After Rat went to sleep I walked out of the grass with Garth so we didn't wake him.

"We need to come up with a way he can talk to us." I whispered.

"Well those motions with his paw seem to work well maybe you can work with him tomorrow then teach me at night." He said we agreed on it and went to bed. In the morning I got to work with Rat. He pointed to the sunrise when he woke up and I did the same.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked and he nodded yes. "I figured today we could learn how to communicate better." His tail wagged I assumed he was excited to finally be able to talk to people. "Let's start with hungry." I rubbed my stomach and he copied. For thirsty he rubbed his throat, for hurt he showed a limp paw then pointed to the spot, for feeling sick he put his paw on his head, and for ok he clapped his paws together.


	3. Chapter 3 Curiosity

Chapter 3 Curiousity

Runt's POV

I had to wake up early the next day for school; I went with my dad while my siblings went with my mom. I walked alongside him till we got to the clearing that the school was held. There were four omega females and one other male not including Rat. The girls were named Cassie, Janet, and Sydney. Janet and Sydney were Mooch's daughters and Cassie belonged to Shakey. The other male was named Mint and was Salty's son. His sister was the last omega and her name was Cristie. She was walking over to Rat who was standing by Lilly in the front.

"Hello." She said to him and he did his typical wave. "My name is Cristie. What's yours?" I ran over to save him the embarrassment but Lilly beat me to it.

"His name is Rat." Lilly whispered something in her ear and she nodded. I already knew what it was.

"So are you living with Lilly?" She asked to which he nodded yes. "That's cool."

"Alright class let's get started." Lilly said and we all took our seats. Rat sat next to me in the front row.

"Now next week we'll be going on a field trip so make sure to get your parents' permission." Lilly said before continuing our lesson on keeping the peace of the pack. School seemed to take forever and finally when it let out, I ran to the alpha school which went longer than ours. Rat followed me, we sat on the cliff and watched as the class went on.

"I've always wanted to hunt." I told Rat who nodded then began to walk away. "Hey where are you going?" He pointed into the direction he was walking, I didn't know what I was expecting. "Wait up then." I called as I ran to catch up with him. We headed towards the berry patch I guessed he was hungry. He grabbed a few berries and walked in another direction. Once again I followed him this time to a bunch of flowers which he picked along with a stick and a piece of bar which he laid all the stuff on before moving again. This time to a cave where some other large pieces of bark were stacked up, he sat the stuff down and pointed to the cave. "Yeah I see it. Why are we here?" I asked he set up one of the large pieces of bark on the side before mashing up the berries. He took the stick with his mouth and dipped in the juice. He walked over to the bark and pressed the stick against it, he drew the symbol for omega. "So a club?"

"Hey Runt are you over here?" My sister Claudette called out. I poked my head out of the bushes.

"Yes." I replied she was with Stinky.

"What are you doing in there?" Stinky asked I looked back at Rat who pointed to the omega symbol.

"Sorry official omega business." I replied looking at Rat who had his paw on his face.

"What?" Claudette asked as she tried to look over me.

"Sorry no alphas allowed." I said she rolled her eyes and pushed me out of the way. Stinky soon followed and I ran to get ahead of them.

"Hey Rat you and Runt weren't trying to make a club were you?" Claudette asked

"Yes we were." I answered for him but he shook his head no.

"So what were you trying to say?" I asked he pointed to me and then at the symbol. "I know I'm an omega." He gave up after that and walked out of the bushes to a puddle where he washed his paws off.

"Well I'm leaving." Claudette said and Stinky looked at me with a grin on his face.

"Off to see Fleet are we?" We said at the same time, she turned around sharply and stared at the both of us.

"Shut up!" She yelled Stinky and I began to laugh, while Rat looked at us in confusion.

"Claudette had a big crush on Fleet." I said he clapped his paws together. I assumed it meant ok but I wasn't too sure.

"Well Runt has a crush on Magril!" Claudette yelled out and Stinky began to laugh so I blurted out his secret crush as well. "Stinky likes Cassie!" the three of us stared at each other then at Rat.

"You tell no one." The three of us said in unison. Then Stinky looked at me.

"I don't have a crush on that omega." He said, Claudette rolled her eyes as she walked away leaving the three of us at the cave. "Hey Rat have you ever been in there?" Stinky asked looking at the entrance. Rat shook his head no and Stinky walked in. "Are you two coming or are you too scared?" The two of us quickly followed him.

"This place is big!" I yelled to get the echo. Light came in from the top I looked up to see a hole in ground, I looked back down to see Rat climbing up the wall.

"Rat what are you doing?" Stinky asked as he got to top and point further down the cave.

"I don't think we should go down further." I called up and he looked down and pointed back further down the cave.

"You can go down but I'm going to stay here." I replied and he walked off.

"Well to be fair I think Lilly enjoys the company." We heard our mother's voice from above.

"MOM!" We yelled as loud as we could and she looked down the hole and was horror struck.

"Stinky! Runt! Hang on we'll get you out!" She yelled down

"Mom we aren't stuck it's a cave. Rat found it." I called back up and she relaxed.

"Where is Rat?" Garth asked as he looked down the hole.

"He went further into the cave." Stinky called back up

Rat's POV

As I ventured further down the cave it got darker, I climbed down another small cliff and landed in something wet. It was warm; I looked down to see it was glowing a bit. I had landed in an underground hot spring. I had to swim to the other side where there were stalactites and stalagmites. I pulled myself off and shook my body to get some of the water off. I continued my walk until I came to three paths that went up. I chose the left one and began to climb but the rocks were slippery so I ended up sliding back down, next I tried the center one. I almost made it all the way up but a bat flew in my face, which startled me and sent me back down. I tried the last one and managed to climb up it, it led to a separate room. I walked in and heard a loud crunch, I looked down there was a fish bone. I looked up to see like glaring in along with a large shape.

With a loud growl I realized I was in a bear cave, I jumped as an enormous paw was swung at me. When I landed I darted out, I looked behind me to see a large brown bear chasing after me. I serpentined through the woods in hopes the bear would trip over something. It didn't work, I realized this after I jumped over a creek and it was still behind me and gaining.

"Rat!" I heard I looked over to my left to see Claudette and Fleet. I looked back in front of me to see a tree I came to a stop at the last moment and jumped out of the way as the bear hit it face first. I turned around the bear was unconscious. I ran up to Claudette and Fleet. I was out of breath and just wanted to go home.

"YOU BEAT A BEAR!" Fleet yelled which really wasn't true the tree did but how was I suppose to tell him.

"We have to tell everyone." Claudette said and I shook my head no. I didn't really want the attention.

"Tell everyone what?" It was Claudette's dad.

"Um….dad….why are you here?" She asked

"Stinky told me you were with Fleet, as for you Rat Garth and Lilly are looking for you so I suggest you find them." I took off towards home. When I got there Lilly almost went into shock.

"Rat what happened why are you out of breath and so dirty?!" She said as Garth walked in

"Well he went exploring in a cave as for the out of breath part I don't know." He said and I did my nest to imitate a bear. They didn't get it though and thought I was acting like a monster for a joke. After several face palms, Lilly finally got it.

"Oh a bear. You were chased by a bear!" She said and I nodded.

"What happened to the bear?" Garth asked and I pointed to a tree and pretended to slam into it.

"So the bear hit a tree and you got away." I nodded glad that they finally understood. "Regardless you need to clean up."


	4. Chapter 4 Rat's New Friend

Chapter 4 Rat's new friend

Runt's POV

"Claudette I've told you before you're not allowed to see boys at your age." Dad said sternly to my sister who looked at mom for help.

"Humphrey.' She said sternly waving for him to walk out of the cave.

"YOU TOLD!" She yelled at Stinky who backed into a corner. Claudette had our grandmothers temper when it came to things like this.

"What was I suppose to say? We were in a cave besides we're getting in trouble to." Stinky replied hoping to soften the blow.

"He is right Claudette." I replied and she growled at me.

"Not the point you said you would never tell dad about it!" She yelled.

"Claudette calm down. It's not the end of the world." I said and she didn't respond.

"I'm not talking to either of you." She went into a corner and laid down. She was really mad like really mad at us. I looked at Stinky who felt and over bearing amount of guilt on himself.

"I'm going to say hi to Rat." I called out as I began to leave but my mom stopped me.

"Oh no you stinky are in trouble for leaving him to explore by himself." She said as she pushed me back into the den. We stayed there all day I didn't see Rat come by I guess he got in trouble for going into the cave by himself, but the next day he came by. My mother informed him that we were grounded and he left.

Rat's POV

What to do? The question rang in my head. With my friends in trouble I had nothing really to do. I could go back and explore the other parts of the cave but last time Lilly got mad at me and I didn't want to make her angry again. As I walked I began to kick a pinecone, it soon became airborn and I began to see how long I could keep it in the air.

"Hey." I let the pinecone fall as Cristie walked over to me. "Can I play?" She asked I nodded and tossed her the pinecone. She hit it back to me and I knocked it back to her. "So I heard about the bear. That was pretty cool." I could tell it was awkward for her to talk to me. I let the pinecone fall and she looked at me. "Could you teach me that sign language you use with Lilly?" She said nervously I nodded eagerly. I led her to the tall grass where Lilly was.

"Oh hi Cristie, what brings you here?" Lilly asked

"I want to know the sign language you two do." She replied Lilly let her in and we began. We started with the basics. Hunger, thirst, sick, hurt, stuff like that.

"That's easy enough." Cristie replied

"Alright let's try something a little harder then. Now we'll move on to emotions and animals." It took the rest of the day but she was getting the hang of it. She had to go and Lilly smiled at me. "Looks like she likes you." She said

Cristie came back the next day to finish the previous teachings, and it wasn't too long after that that she was able to understand what I was saying for the most part.

"Alright you two have fun." Lilly said and the two of us ran off together. I followed her to a berry patch where she threw a berry at me, getting the juice on my fur. I retaliated by throwing one at her. She ducked out of the way and tackled me.

"You'll have to better than that." She said before jumping off me and running off, I gave chase. We ran through the trees as fast as we could, until I finally caught up to her and tackled her/

"Alright you win, now get off." She laughed I did and she pushed me into a creek we were standing next to, I pulled her in as she laughed. "Great now we're both wet." I snickered it was silent but she noticed it. "Ok stop laughing at me." I moved my over her face meaning is wasn't at her than pointed to the two us meaning it was at us. "Ok wise guy." She and I got out of the creek and shook our selves off.

"Having fun?" Cristie looked up to see her dad and mom standing nearby along with Humphrey.

"Um yeah sorry about getting wet." She said shyly.

"It's fine, just remember to be home before dinner." Salty said before walking off.

"Come on." She gestured for me to follow. I did and we ended up at a cliff that over looked the territory. "Isn't it the view great?" She asked I nodded. Then a grin spread across her face and she tackled me, we rolled down the hill until we landed in a bush.

"I'll see you tomorrow Rat." She said before running off. I went home for some reason I couldn't stop smiling. I walked into the tall grass and Lilly noticed my good mood.

"Did you have a good time with Cristie?" She asked and I nodded


	5. Chapter 5 The Talk

Chapter 5 The Talk

Runt's POV

I went to school the next day, Rat though was playing with Cristie, and both of them were laughing though Rat's laugh was more of a silent chuckle than anything. I watched as to two took turns hitting a pinecone back and forth.

"Hey Runt." I looked over to see Cassie talking to me. It was a first, I tried not to talk to her since she normally just wanted gossip.

"Yeah?" I replied I knew it had to do with Rat and Cristie.

"So are those two together?" She asked trying to look cute. I've seen her do it to Mint he normal would give anything to please her.

"How should I know and if I did why would I tell you?" I asked as Rat waved for me to come over and join them. I took my leave and proceeded to walk over. Rat did some motions with his paw and Cristie translated for me.

"He wants to know if you want to play with us." She said

"Yeah what is it you two are playing?" I asked and she explained the rules to me. "So all I have to do is keep this pinecone in the air?" Rat nodded his head and I hit it off my snout to him.

"So what did you two do yesterday?" I asked as Rat hit it to Cristie.

"We hung out." She replied hitting back to me.

"Well Cassie thinks you two are dating." I warned them hitting it back to Rat.

"hmph she would." Cristie shot her nose up with disgust. She wasn't like the other omega pups, she seemed more likely to be an alpha or at least a beta in her everyday attitude towards things.

"Rat any thoughts?" I asked as the pinecone hit the ground. He shook his head no as my dad came into the classroom.

"Where's Mrs. Lilly?" Cassie asked as we took our seats.

"She'll be staying at her den for the next couple of weeks." I didn't know that they got a den. By the look on Rat's face neither did he.

"Is she alright?" Mint asked.

"Yes she's fine, she's just going to having pups soon." My dad quickly shut himself up.

"Did you know?" Cristie asked Rat, who did some other motions I couldn't make sense of.

"You noticed her belly was getting bigger and she ate a lot? That didn't strike you as odd?" She replied he shrugged and she rolled her eyes. "I guess you have a point there."

"When will she have them?" Janet asked quickly

"We don't know."

"How are babies made?" Mint asked to be fair none of us exactly knew. Though Cristie and Rat had smirks on their faces.

"Do you two have something to share?" Dad asked them and both of them stopped smirking. "That's a conversation for you and your parents to have." Dad replied before getting on with today's lesson. After school I dragged Rat away from Cristie and made him follow me to a place where I knew we wouldn't be bothered.

"Do you like like Cristie?" I asked and he shook his head cautiously yes. "Ok, well there's this girl I like in the Northern pack and you act so calm around Cristie could you help me out?" Rat gave a silent snicker at the thought.

"Hey, I'll tell her." I replied and he stopped and moved his paw up and down. Then shook his head no. "What do you mean no?" I asked then he pointed behind me, I turned around to see Magril and Fleet along with Cristie who motioned for Rat to follow her. He did as the two other wolves walked down to me.

"So you like my sister?" Fleet asked

"What are you doing here?' I asked trying to play it off.

"Well actually I was here to ask your sister if she wanted hang out, then I overheard you talking to Rat." He grinned. Well my life was about to end. Magril whispered something in Fleets ear and his grin faded.

"Really? Fine I'll ask. She wants to know if you want to play with her." He said

"Yes." I replied

Rat's POV

"Wait you're going to check on Lilly?" Cristie asked and I nodded. She seemed to understand why pretty well..

"Well alright then, see ya tomorrow I guess." She walked off a bit disappointed but if she heard Runt I didn't want to find out she didn't feel the same and the excuse was right there anyways. I walked back to the tall grass to find Lilly and Garth not there.

"Hey Rat they're this way." I turned around to see Eve waving for me to follow her. I did and she led me to a medium sized den. Kate and Winston where there to along with an old brown wolf.

"You must be Rat." He held out his paw and I shook it. "My name is Tony I'm Garth's father." He said I nodded then pointed to Lilly.

"She'll be fine Rat." Kate replied that was good but still I was worried at least a little but it wasn't about her but what would happen with me when she gave birth. I guess I let on that something else was troubling a bit more than I thought cause Garth wanted me to walk with him outside.

"You're worried about what'll happen with you aren't you?" He asked I nodded a little. "Well that's really up to you. By the time she gives birth you'll almost be a teenager and the alpha pups will be gone for the full alpha school. But Lilly and I were hoping you would stay." He replied I felt my tail begin to wag it was so embarrassing at times.

Runt's POV

"Alright Claudette and Runt I'll let you two go hang out with Magril and Fleet alone after we have a talk." Dad told us for some reason Stinky was there to.

"Alright." Claudette said

"Ok now this is serious, I need to tell you all where-"

"Humphrey! They're a little young for the talk." Mom said as she walked in. "Alright you two go have fun tonight." She said. To be honest I was a bit nervous about the whole thing.

"Oh fine." He replied a bit sarcastic.

"So we can go right?" Claudette asked

"Yes go on or you'll be late." They said at the same time.


	6. Chapter 6 Young Love

Chapter 6 Young Love

(Sorry this one is a bit shorter than the rest.)

Runt's POV

"So where do you want to go?" I asked Magril she shrugged and I remembered the cave that Rat found. "I know a cave if you want to go there." She whispered sure in my ear and I led the way. The cave was dark though the moon shined through the hole in the roof creating a perfect circle on the ground. "So do you always whisper?" I asked seeing how this was going nowhere fast. She nodded; I found a pinecone on the ground and hit it up. "Rat made up this game if you want to play it. We have to keep the pinecone from hitting the ground and we can only hit it once." I suggested. She joined me, the night seemed to go by a lot faster as we hit it back and forth.

"Runt look out!" Magril yelled before I tripped and fell. I looked at her amazed at the fact she just spoke out loud. She had both paws over her mouth and stared at me.

"You talked out loud." I said in disbelief but I realized she didn't want me to make a big deal about it as she helped me up. "Sorry, but I need to go home. She whispered before running off. I couldn't help but feel like I had screwed up.

"Magril wait! I'm sorry." I called out and she turned around and began to laugh.

"I really do have to go home." She whispered in my ear. I couldn't believe that I had been so stupid, I hit my face with my paw like I've seen Rat do. I felt something hit my head I looked up to see Rat smiling down at me. I ran up to where he was with him was Stinky.

"You two stop laughing!" I yelled, both of them continued to. "Well at least I got a date." I replied both of them looked at each other then at me.

"You want to go spy on Claudette?" Stinky asked and the three of us were off. They were by the creek looking up at the moon.

"This is nice." Claudette said as she rested her head on Fleet's shoulder.

"Yeah." He replied looking into her eyes their faces got closer together. Something began to smell, I looked next to me where Rat should be and he was gone in his place was a skunk. Stinky and I looked at each other than ran out as fast as we could, not wanting to get sprayed which consequently ruined their moment.

"RUNT! STINKY!" Claudette yelled as loud as she could as the skunk walked out. It was Rat he began to snicker as Cristie also walked out laughing.  
"You should've seen your faces." Cristie laughed as Rat went to creek and washed off his fur.

"How did you two pull that off!?" I yelled

"Well pretty easily it was dark out and it's not like you were paying attention to Rat." She replied and she helped Rat with his sides.

"Ugh you two are so dead!" All of us yelled at them, the two ran off and we ran after them. The two ran as fast as they could but Stinky, Claudette, and Fleet were gaining on them. Eventually they ran out of breath and we caught them.

"Well what should we do with them?" Stinky asked looking at Claudette. Who had an evil grin on her face.

"I say we make them dig up every bone in the territory." She said

"Or maybe we could let them go on account that Stinky and Runt were spying on you." Cristie said and the tides turned. Fleet and Claudette tackled us.

"You were spying on us!?" She yelled we had no choice to nod and watch our skunk run off into the moonlight with Cristie. "I'm telling mom!" She yelled before getting off me.

Rat's POV

"That was great!" Cristie laughed as we made our dramatic escape to her den. The fact that they thought I was a skunk was great. The black was mud and the smell was just onion grass. Over all it was her idea and it worked perfectly. "Thanks for the fun night I'll see you tomorrow at school." She licked my cheek before walking off. I made my way back to my new den completely love struck. It appreantly showed cause Garth and Lilly immediately began asking questions they didn't even care that I was a few minutes late. I told them everything I could before going to bed.


	7. Chapter 7 Troublemakers

Chapter 7 Troublemakers

Runt's POV

"Hey Lilly is Rat home?" I asked wanting to get back at him for the skunk prank he and Cristie pulled last night.

"He left with Cristie a while ago. I'll tell him you stopped by though." Lilly replied I thanked her before leaving. I met up with Stinky and Claudette for good old fashion revenge. They were getting everything ready.

"Well he wasn't at the den." I said to them. They looked up from their work and frowned.

"Well what's the point of all this then?" Claudette replied as Fleet and Magril came walking up.

"Well to get them back but we need to lure them here." Stinky replied we all took some time to think of a solution to our problem and came up with nothing.

"Wait what if we used them for bait?" Fleet suggested

"That's genius my smart alpha." Claudette said and we began to hear gagging sounds from a nearby bush. We walked over to find Rat and Cristie gagging. Probably at my sister's sad excuse for flirting. Both of them began to laugh before noticing we were watching. "Yeah yeah laugh it up omegas like you two could do better." Claudette said which made them stop laughing.

"I bet we could." Cristie shot back

"Then by all means go ahead." Fleet replied she looked at Rat.

"Well um, um." As she stuttered Stinky got to work on quickly finishing our project. Now all we had to do was keep them busy.

"Rat maybe you should help her out." I offered he flashed me a confused look, of course he wouldn't know what flirting meant. I saw Claudette and Fleet backing up slowly, I followed. "Fire!" We all yelled as a beehive full of honey fell on them. They were soaked in honey, Rat's white fur was turned a light a shade of yellow as he tried to make sense of what had happened.

"HEY!" Cristie yelled as loud as she could.

"Pay back!" Claudette yelled Cristie glared at her and moved in to beat to my sister. Luckily though Rat caught her.

"Fine let's go get cleaned up first I guess." Cristie said to Rat as she grinded her teeth. All five of us laughed at our friends' misfortune.

"Well that was fun." Magril whispered into my ear, as we walked away from the scene.

"You don't think they'll want revenge do you?" Stinky asked

"Well if they do we'll have to be ready for them." Claudette replied

"Like those two omegas could beat four alphas and one omega." Fleet said but I was a bit skeptical on the subject.

Lilly's POV

"Rat what happened?" I asked as he walked in a tad bit yellow and smelling like hone, with him was Cristie.

"Runt, Claudette, Fleet, Stinky, and Magril pulled a prank on us." Cristie replied as Rat licked the honey off his paws. "Do you know how to get honey off our fur?"

"Warm water normal does the trick but I don't know of any springs close by." Rat raised his paw meaning that he did know of one. He then made the gesture for cave.

"There was one in the cave you explored." Cristie said Rat nodded and the two ran off.

"Well those two are getting along well." Kate said as she walked into the den.

"Well you should have seen Rat last night he came completely love struck." I replied snickering a bit at the googly eyed expression he had last night.

"So they're off to the cave?" She asked I nodded then told her what had happened. "Don't worry I'll get after them."

"Those two already seemed to be planning something already, I say we let them have they're prank war at least for today." I replied Kate nodded.

"Well I just wanted to come and check on you."

"I'm doing fine thanks for stopping by." Kate left after that.

Rat's POV

"We should have them fall into a pit of spiders." Cristie said still mad about the honey. I got out of the hot spring my fur was white again, she followed and grew a large evil looking grin. "I've got it, we could strike each of them individually when they're alone with the girl or boy they like." She began laughing at the mere thought. I shook my head no. "Oh come on it'll be like a date." She said and I immediately went along with it.

After a couple of hours of gathering all sorts of supplies we were ready, though we didn't know exactly when we were going to attack because our first target had been getting ready for the past thirty minutes, so we had to camp out and wait in a bush. Cristie insisted we dyed our fur to blend in to the foliage, so my white fur was once again stained, this time green and black. She was convinced that they would be out tonight.

"Rat get ready here they come." It was our first target Claudette and Fleet. Above them was a mix of dirt and berry juices. That part was my idea and I was proud of it. "Okay cut it." I bit a vine and the whole thing unfold in a giant cloud of dust so we could make our escape.

Next up was Stinky, he was about to ask Cassie to hang out with him tonight. Where got that information isn't necessary. All I know we had set up something Cristie called the stink cannon. I was against it but she wouldn't let me reject the idea. Basically what it was, was a mix of smelly liquids put into a small hollow stick that had a leaf in one end so it wouldn't come into our mouths. Cristie took aim and blew the concoction flew everywhere. I had to cover my nose he smelled so bad. Cristie quickly pulled me along to our final destination.

Runt and Magril were in the cave where the big hole was. Cristie and I moved a log from the brush, it was full of blue juice. We pushed it against a rock and raised it up allowing to come out and splatter all over them. We ran away as fast as we could to the creek to quickly wash up and head home before they could retaliate.

"Hey Rat." I looked up at Cristie as she washed her snout. "Thanks for your help we'll hang out tomorrow night I promise."


	8. Chapter 8 The White Mute (Part 1 of 2)

Chapter 8 White Mute Part 1

(This chapter is a more serious than the last couple. Heads up)

Rat's POV

I couldn't sleep the night of the great pranking, something just didn't feel quite right with the world. I eventually got so frustrated with not being able to sleep that I decided to walk out of the den. Judging by the position of the moon it was two in the morning. I gave a silent sigh as I walked along a path that was unfamiliar to me. I could hear the sound of a train in background along with crickets and other night life. It seemed the rest of the world just didn't agree with me. I guess it was because I really wanted to talk like everyone else, I hated being mute.

"Hey Rat everything ok?" I turned around Runt was standing behind me. I nodded. "hey I've been meaning to ask you. Were you born mute?" The question rung in my ears. I shook my head no. "Wait you could talk what happened." It wasn't something I could tell him instead I had to show him, I lifted the fur on the side of my neck to reveal a set of bite marks. What had happened was a mountain lion got a hold of me when I was younger. I wasn't really even supposed to survive the ordeal but when I did I couldn't speak anymore. My old pack's healer said it was psychological and not physical meaning in theory I could still speak but my subconscious wouldn't allow me.

"What happened?" I didn't want to get into it not with him at least so I put my fur back down and headed home. "Wait Rat I didn't mean to upset you." Runt called out I wasn't mad at him not in the slightest I knew that coming to this pack would mean that I would have to reveal some things I just wasn't ready for it yet. I went home and didn't sleep the rest of the night.

"Rat you look terrible did you sleep last night?" Garth asked I shook my head no. It caused some concern in him.

"Maybe you should stay home from school tonight and not go out with Cristie tonight." He was probably right and I couldn't argue so I laid back down. Garth and Lilly walked out of the room for a few minutes but I could hear everything they were saying.

"You don't think its about…"

"No Lilly I think it maybe something more personal."

"What should we do?"

"I guess we should give it time and hope it gets better for right now."

I tried to sleep for the rest of the day to no avail. Instead I began to ponder things, finally when Lilly left to go see her mom I stood up and wondered out of the den. I didn't know where I was going perhaps looking for answers, but I knew moping in a den wasn't going to help me much. I snuck past omega and alpha school and made a bee line for the cave. I got to the chasm with the three paths, I took the one on the left. Despite slipping a bit I made it up into another passageway. It was pitch black so I had to rely on smell and touch.

I walked straight occasionally bumping into a wall or rock here and there. Eventually I couldn't move anymore and had to sleep, I had lost track of time but I didn't think it had been over a day yet. When I woke up I kept going straight. I had no idea where I was now I only hoped that there was an exit to this thing. My stomach growled and my throat was dry.

Runt's POV

"Hey Runt have you seen Rat anywhere?" Garth asked me he seemed to be a bit worried.

"Not sense last night." I replied

"What happened last night?" He asked me I told him about the scars on Rat's neck and how he used to able to talk. It troubled Garth, I could tell as he thanked me and walked off back towards his den.

The next morning everyone was searching there was no scent, footprints, or any sign of Rat in the whole territory not even in the cave. Cristie was beginning to worry she kept asking me questions about what happened the last time I saw him. It seemed like most of our wolves were scared about what happened to him.

Rat's POV

I eventually found some water dripping from the celling after drinking all that I could I began walking again. I wasn't going to stop there was no point to it at this point. I began to wonder how long I had been down here it only seemed like a few hours, I knew I was going to be late for my night with Cristie but this whole thing seemed to be working. I began to feel happier as I walked along my unknown path.

Runt's POV

"Cristie I've told you everything." I said out of annoyance we were now entering day two of the search, Cristie had been searching all night, it was honestly amazing that she was still awake.

"We've searched every inch of all of the territory's I don't think he is in the park anymore." Hutch told Winston who frowned.

"Well then I guess we'll have to assume something got him then." He said gravely. I felt a sudden wave of sadness come over me. I looked at Cristie who I could tell felt the same way as me. No wolf slept that night.


	9. Chapter 9 The White Mute (Part 2 of 2)

Chapter 9 White Mute (Part 2 of 2)

(I would love to hear everyone's ideas on where the story should go from here.)

Rat's POV

This cave went on forever. I screamed to myself I was hungry, tired, frustrated, and I just wanted to go home to Lilly and Garth. I eventually collapsed on the ground unable to move, I heard the sound of rushing water. It had to be the way out, it just had to be. The hope was enough to get me moving again, I walked until I fell into the dark abyss.

Splash! I had fallen in an underground river that was rushing further down the cave. I tried my hardest to stay above the water I as I was swept away by the current. I could see light at the end of the tunnel, it blinded me as I exited the darkness. I was pushed onto the shore unsure of if I was still in Jasper park or not. I couldn't move anymore my eyes fell shut and I was out. When I finally woke up I was able to stand once again, there was some berry bushes nearby. I ate as many as I could before drinking from the river. I had no idea where to go from here, I assumed that going against the river would lead me home. So I set off as fast as I could. Lilly and Garth must be worried I told myself, that was my only goal now just to get home.

There was snow on the ground, how long had I been in the cave. I found a sheet of ice and looked at my reflection to make sure I hadn't aged I was still a pup. I guessed it must've snowed while I was down there. I noticed it was getting dark and took shelter in some roots that made a little hole. Now I knew they must be worried about me. I felt terrible, I couldn't sleep to well with the overly large amount of guilt on my shoulders.

Runt's POV

Five days had passed and we gave up, Cristie hadn't been coming to school, in fact I wasn't either. I felt like I could've done something that night.

"Runt come it's time to eat." Mom said she knew I felt terrible and promised me things would get better.

"I'm fine mom." I said as I laid back down in the corner.

"Runt I know you must feel bad but that's no reason to starve yourself." She said I managed to force myself to eat a paw full of bites that was about it.

Rat's POV

Ok time to get going. I told myself as the sun rose, I was up and already ready to go home. I wasn't going to stop until I got home. I wouldn't stop, I didn't want to. I pushed myself to walk all day and most of the night. I knew that had been gone for at least two days probably more by now. I couldn't stop thinking about Cristie that night. She must be furious with me for ditching her. The next morning I took things a bit easier thinking I would be able to walk further than the day before. Snow began to fall and luckily I found a full sized cave to sleep in. The snow had stopped by the time I woke up. I could hear something behind me it sounded too familiar. I turned around slowly to see a mountain lion licking its teeth at me. Now I could out run a bear but a lion I think I had my work cut out for me. I took off in the direction I thought Jasper was in. I could hear the roaring cat behind me, I didn't want to turn around and look for myself I was too scared to.

I bobbed and weaved through the forest like I did with the bear hoping the cat wouldn't be able to keep up with. I was growing tired though and even with adrenaline pumping through my body I wasn't sure how much longer I could last. Finally I spotted it the alpha school training field. If I could just make it there. I ran down the hill side to carelessly and fell half way down. I landed on my right front paw. In hurt a lot, I couldn't move it or get up I was a sitting duck. I opened my mouth to yell nothing came out. I had to keep trying not only did I not want to die but I wanted see my family again. I got back up and began limping to school. I could hear the lion behind me, it knew that I no longer could run and it could slow down.

I looked behind me to see the large cat getting closer and closer. I kept going in hopes that someone would see me from the school. I ended up falling and having the cat's paw placed on my back. It took up half my body length, I felt the warm breath as it grabbed me by the neck. I waited for the embrace of my imminent demise, but it never came. Instead I was dropped I heard a mix of growling and roaring as I saw the cat run off. I fell unconscious after that.

Runt's POV

I saw the alpha school spread out as mom carried a white pup by the back of his neck. The pup looked terrible, there was dirt and leaves in his fur and his front right leg was bleeding as well. She placed the pup by Garth and I realized who it was. The guilt fell off my shoulder and I began running down to see if he was alright. He opened his eyes about half way as I walked over to him.

"Rat?" I asked my friend who everyone thought would be dead by now. He tried to stand up but couldn't because of his leg but he waved weakly before falling asleep. Garth picked him up and began walking back to his den.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Mom asked I gave a nervous snicker as she hurried me along to get back to class. I couldn't wait for school to end so I could go check on him, I informed Cristie about what was going on, it was nice to see the light return to her face again. School ended and we ran as fast as we could to check on him. We got there to find him still asleep, he was laying down next to Lilly while our pack healer looked at his leg.

"Well it's not broken, he should be fine as long as he gets a lot of rest." Our healer's name was Candy she was married to Candu who was also in the den.

"I'll give it to him he certainly surprised all of us." He said to Garth who nodded. Rat stirred in his sleep a bit, probably because of everything he's been through.

Rat slept for three days straight and even when he finally woke up he was completely exhausted. It didn't help that everyone was asking questions which he couldn't answer with his sign language. There was something off about him though, I could tell he felt bad for making everyone worry but just couldn't say anything. Everyone was in the den at once to see him, I could tell he felt uncomfortable about the large group as he had a tendency to hide behind Lilly.

"s….orry" It was fate but it caught everyone's attention we all looked at the source of the noise. Rat had his mouth open a bit shocked that the word had actually come from him. His talking stopped there though for some reason. As everyone began to pressure him to speak again but he shied away.


	10. Chapter 10 Cristie's Pissed

Chapter 10 Crisitie's Pissed

Runt's POV

Well Cristie went from sad to glad now to mad. She was furious that Rat ran off like that I would say he had more to fear from her than anyone else in the pack. Granted the miracle of Rat saying the word sorry to everyone made her ease up a little she was still rather to kill him.

"I can't believe this!" She yelled to me as we walked to school. She was mad that he wasn't going to be punished for leaving like that. I didn't think he really meant to be gone for that long though.

"Cristie I doubt he purposely decided to get up and leave for five days." I replied and she glared at me.

"I'm going to kill him when he gets back to school." She told me. I rolled my eyes she was over exaggerating a bit.

"Cristie calm down." I replied.

"Why should I? He's been gone forever without a care in the world." She sounded frantic.

"Yeah and he feels really bad about it." I said she gave a big sigh and looked at me.

"still going to kill him." She muttered to herself before walking off on her own. I walked to Rat's he was up but he still had rings around his eyes, I began to wonder he if was ever going to fully recover from everything but Candy insisted he would in a few days. He waved to me.

"Hey how goes everything?" I asked he gave me a mixed looked. Then pointed to his paw. We had all heard him talk but he still remained silent.

"You know Cristie's pretty mad at you for leaving. Why did you leave?" I asked he looked down at the ground and his ears dropped. "But you didn't mean to be gone that long did you?" He nodded so I assumed he just got lost or something.

"Alright well I'll see you later." I said before leaving.

Around two days later on the weekend Rat was finally back to full strength. He still wasn't talking though now everyone knew he could, but I wasn't going to push him. Instead I prepared him for the pounding Cristie was going give him.

"RAT!" She yelled as we walked to the creek where we were supposed to meet up. She ran at him Rat braced for impact. I watched as Cristie tackled him. The two rolled on the ground until Crisite had him pinned.

"I'm sorry." He said it was still quiet but she got off him.

"Don't ever do that again without telling me!" She yelled on the verge of crying. He put his paw on her chest she seemed to get something that I was oblivious to because she did the same before hugging him.

"Would you two hurry up already." Claudette said as she and my brother walked over. Cristie quickly let go of Rat she seemed to be a bit embarrassed.

"oooooo looks like the omegas are in love." Stinky teased both of them shot him a death stare.

"Says the alpha who's to chicken to ask an omega out." Cristie shot back and my brother was flustered.

"Well you made stink like a skunk when I was going to!" He replied

"Well you're the one who covered us in honey!"

"You had Rat pretend to be a skunk! And ruin my chance of getting first kiss!" Claudette yelledRat hit his face with his paw and dragged it down slowly.

"Yeah I know." I told him as we watched the three argue. Eventually the two is us walked off allowing the three to blow off steam.

"So any ideas on what to do?" I asked him he shrugged. "Well that makes two of us. Are you going to tell me how you're able to talk now?" He shrugged once again it was like he had no idea himself on how it happened.

"Winter's around the corner that means the alphas will be gone." I said he looked at me confused. "The alphas leave during the winter to train the future alphas who go with them and the leaves us omegas here."


	11. Chapter 11 Rat's Voice of The Past

Chapter 11 Rat's Voice of the past, Lilly's cubs, and alphas leave

Rat's POV

A few weeks passed I wasn't a small cub anymore instead I was a pre-teen wolf. I still had trouble talking though so I still mainly used sign language. In a few days the alphas will leave and I would be left with Runt and Cristie. I was at my den with Lilly, Candy said she was due any day now. Garth seemed to be getting worried about it as each day passed. Personally I thought everything was going to be fine.

"Rat come on." I walked out of the den where Runt and Cristie were. We ran off together towards a hill were we had set up a logboard. Runt was in front, Cristie in the middle, and I sat in the back. "Alright let's go!" Runt yelled as we started on the way down. Cristie leaned back to try to center our center of gravity as we took our first turn avoiding a rock. We could see Claudette and Stinky wrestling each other we began moving in that direction. Runt had become more daring than the rest of us when it came to logboarding, he moved us into position and we scooped up the two alphas.

"RUNT!" they yelled as they sat down.

"We just we should say bye." Cristie laughed.

"We don't leave for another three days!" Claudette yelled, I rolled my eyes as we sped down the hill towards a pond. SPLASH! We were skipping across the water until finally sinking. We swam out of the cold water to Winston who had seen everything go down.

"A little early for a swim Runt." He said on the verge of laughing . My mane hung over both my eyes I couldn't very well see luckily for me all I had to do was follow Cristie's laughing.

"You're mane needs to be cut!" She laughed before I tackled her back into the water.

"Ugh would you two stop flirting for a day." Claudette said as we got out.

"What's wrong Claudette missing Fleet?" Stinky asked but he really wasn't up for what was going on between Cristie and me to.

"Shut up I'll see him when we leave." She replied

"I think more importantly we should work on Rat's speaking skills since Lilly's about to give birth and I don't think those pups will learn sign language anytime soon." Runt suggested he had a point but Claudette and Stinky had already begun leaving.

"Maybe when we aren't soaked." They replied.

"Well I got to go Rat I have to meet Candy for herbal medicines today." Cristie was wanting to be our pack's next healer so she rarely had time to hang out now. So it was soon just Runt and me, he hti my shoulder and pointed to her.

"When are you two going to actually start dating?" He asked and I shrugged he groaned granted he wasn't exactly mister love guru himself he and Magril were still friends to. "Alright let's get to work on talking." After he and I dried off we walked to the tall grass.

"repeat after me. Hi." He said

"hi." My voice was still barely audible.

"try raising your voice." He suggested

"hi." I said again and he face pawed.

"Ugh this is going to be a long day." He replied. We worked together for the rest of the day before finally going home. Where I continued to practice raising my voice to where it could be heard.

"Rat time to eat." Garth said I walked in and ate while also trying to make conversation. Which went about as well as the time I walked into the cave.

"Rat are you trying to learn to talk better for the pups?" Lilly asked I rested the urge to nod.

"y..yes" I said my words were often butchered and fragmented.

"Well you're doing well." She encouraged me though I knew better than that. I went to sleep a few hours after that, the next morning I woke up and headed to Runt's. He was already up and waiting for me, I sat down in front of him and we started where we left off.

"Ok now to work on making your words less staggered." He said

"Al…right." I said

"Stop pausing in the middle of words." He instructed.

"Ok." I said and he smiled.

"Now you're getting the hang of it." We kept at it for several more hours till Kate ran in.

"Lilly's gone into labor." She said frantically and we ran back to my den where Cristie and Candy were helping Lilly through it. I stayed outside not wanting to see what was going on. I covered my ears so I didn't have to hear all the painful screaming.

"You're such a baby." Claudette taunted me I rolled my eyes at her. I looked over at Runt who was doing the same thing as me. I eventually got up and began walking.

"Rat wait up!" Runt called out as he followed me. "What's wrong?"

"I just don't want to hear all of it." I replied he laughed a little and we continued on our walk.

"So what do you want to do?" he asked I didn't know, we kept walking though until a bird stopped us.

"I'm looking for a wolf named Rat." It said it was a Puffin of all things.

"I'm him." I replied

"Your brother sent me to find you, he wants you to meet him and the rest of your family in Alaska." I was speechless again. My family wanted to see me how did they learn I was still alive? I had to sit down.

"Rat are you okay?" Runt asked me.

"Um yeah sure I'll come." I said, Runt looked at me like he just heard that I was in that cave again. But I ignored him and went to go inform garth, Lilly, and Cristie of it. When I got there three small pups were feeding.

"Um I'm going to Alaska." I said as the puffin landed on my shoulder.

"Alaska? What could possibly be up there?" Cristie asked and the puffin explained everything.

"Rat I don't think it's a good idea to go by yourself in the middle of winter." Garth said.

"I'll go with him." Runt said.

"no No NO!" His mom yelled and Cristie glared at me.

"Garth's right Rat it's too dangerous." She said well this was fantastic no one wants me to go. The puffin took everything into consideration before coming up with a solution.

"I will inform them they must come here." The puffin said before taking off.

Runt's POV

"So what are their names?" I asked trying to break the awkwardness of Rat's family coming here.

"The girl is named Maria and the two boys are named Traves and Fallo." Garth said Cristie left with rat I guess the thought of seeing his family bugged him a little. The next day it was time to say bye to my siblings. I hugged them and my mom before they finally left for the winter.


	12. Chapter 12 Nervous

Chapter 12 Rat and Runt's day.

Runt's POV

With my mom and siblings gone the den felt kind of empty. My dad was busy couching Garth on what not to do when dealing with kids as a parent. As for Rat I think he was kind of glad to get out of the den for a few hours. He walked in and our day began with something simple. Eating breakfast which took us around five minutes. Next up was a morning logboarding run. We climbed up a nearby hill with the board and got in.

"So you excited for your family to visit?" I asked as we pushed it up.

"To be honest not really." He replied it was nice for him to able to talk now.

"Why's that?" I asked

"Well I was supposed to be an alpha I don't think they'll be too happy to find out I'm an omega now." He said as we finally got to the top.

"Wait you were supposed to be an alpha?" I asked

"Well that was before I went mute." He said not really seeming hurt by it. He got in the back like normal and hopped in the front. "Besides if I was an alpha we wouldn't be able to do stuff like this." Rat pushed us off. We began accelerating down the hill, Rat steered us towards a rock that sort of looked like a ramp.

"Rat?" I called back to him before we took off. We were in the air we ended up letting go of the board and hitting the ground hard.

"ow." We said before getting up and grabbing the turned over board. Rat pushed it over and I helped him push it back to my den.

"But still they're your family." I replied as we passed Mint and the twins who were flirting with him.

"Runt I appreciate the thought on the subject but as far as I'm concerned my family is here in Jasper." He replied as we put the board back where it was.

"Fine I'll drop it. So do you want to go pick up Cristie?" I asked

"She's probably busy. So what do you want to do now?" He asked I thought about it for a minute.

"Well what if we went to see what she was up to?" I asked Rat went along with it and we walked to den. It smelled bad as we walked into it, Cristie was mashing up some leaves as Candy watched her.

"Why are you two here?" She asked sounding kind of frustrated.

"We just came to see what you were up to." I replied as Rat gestured for us to leave so we did. I followed Rat around for a while, until we finally stopped on top of a hill and I decided to bring up his family coming to visit again.

"Well what do you think your parents will think of Cristie?" I asked he looked at me.

"They'll like her I guess." He replied clearly still not wanting to talk about it.

"So is there a reason you're not wanting to tell me things about your family?" I asked and he shrugged.

"Well I'm going to head home." He said before walking off leaving me on the hill.

Rat's POV

To say the truth I was pretty nervous about my parents coming, inf fact the only time I had ever been this nervous was when I was alone with Crisite for the first time. In fact Runt bringing it up all day was the farthest thing from help. I kept walking trying to clear my head of everything that was going on. I eventually found myself back at the den.

"Rat you're nervous about your parents coming." Lilly said to me as I paced back and forth.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked

"Don't worry too much." She informed me but I couldn't help it. I couldn't sleep to well that night everything Runt had asked had me worked up. The next day Cristie was finally free for once. So instead of hanging out with Runt I decided to hang with her.

"So Rat, Runt came by this morning and told me you were nervous." She informed me as we walked by the creek.

"I'm not." I replied

"You're not a good liar, your left ear is lower than your right when you're nervous." She said, it was something I had never noticed about myself. "Besides what do you have to be nervous about?"

"Several things, like what if they want me to go home with them." I replied

"Well that would be a damper on things." She said in a flirty tone, I looked at her and she batted her eye lashes.

"Ha ha very funny." I replied and she began laughing.

"Well let's go get Runt and go logboarding, there was a hill I found yesterday that I wanted to try. Besides I won't let them take you." She said in a serious tone.


	13. Chapter 13 Parents

Chapter 13 Old Meets New

Rat's POV

"Ugh this sucks." I said and Cristie hit my shoulder. "Ow what was that for?"

"Here they come behave." She scolded me as a pitch black wolf around our age, accompanied by a dark grey female wolf and a larger black wolf came our way. "You didn't tell me you had a brother."

"Well to be fair you never asked." I replied

"Rat?" My mom asked I hadn't seen her since I was little.

"Mom." I replied my family didn't know I could talk now and they were taken back by it at first.

"Rat it's been forever little brother." My older brother Judas said before continueing on. "So when does your alpha school start up? Mine starts in three days I can't wait!" Now came the hard part.

"Actually I'm and omega now…" I replied and my family was flabbergasted at the comment.

"Who's this young omega?" My dad asked

"My name is Cristie I'm here because the wolves who've looking after Rat can't be here because they just had pups a couple of days ago." She explained before we began showing them the territory.

"Sorry for the lack of alphas the school just started two days ago." Cristie said as approached the creek.

"So who has been taking care of you all this time?" My dad asked

"An alpha named Garth and an omega named Lilly." I said

"Since when are you able to talk?" My brother asked

"Well that's a long story." Cristie said she was still a tad bit mad at me for being gone for five days.

"um Rat before we go on we were wanting to know if you would come back to Alaska with us." Dad asked I stopped and looked at Cristie.

"I'll have to think about it dad." I answered.

"Well what does that mean?" He asked I turned around and faced him.

"Look I appreciate you all coming to see me, but I have a life here now." I replied

"Rat you a little young to be making that assumption. Maybe when your older you can come back." Mom said I couldn't believe this first they leave me in a cave and now they expect me to come back with them. I couldn't help but laugh.

"You all left me in cave because I couldn't talk so why would I go back with you?" I asked glaring at my parents. "I think it would best if you all left." My parents were in awe.

"Well I told you two so." My brother said they looked at him. "Take care Rat I'll make sure to drop by when I graduate alpha school." He said before fist bumping me and leading my parents out of the territory. I took a deep breath and collapsed on the ground. I was emotionally drained.

"Aww you couldn't leave me." Cristie said as she laid down next to me. I would have argued but she was right in away.

"I guess we should get home now." I suggested we stood up and walked back to my den where everyone was awaiting for me to come by with my parents.

"Um Rat where are your parents?" Lilly asked

"Gone." I replied not wanting to talk about it too much but Cristie had to speak.

"It went bad quickly but on the bright side he's staying here." She nuzzled me a bit.

"You two just go out." Runt said both of us looked at him.

"Well alright then we could tonight I'm free." Cristie said and everyone oooed.

"Oh stop it." The two of us said but I honestly didn't mind a night with her after the day I had. We didn't actually wait for that night to come around to go off together. She wanted to lead the way to some spot she had in mind, I really didn't have any choice in the matter but I didn't really mind.

"Here we go." It was the creek where we played as kids. "I thought it would be nice to come back here for our first date."

"It was a nice night when we were cubs." I replied she laughed at it.

"So when you Runt asked you if you liked me what did you say?" I couldn't believe she still remembered that.

"Well I said yes, of course." I said and our night began.


	14. Chapter 14 Young Love 2

Chapter 14 Young Love 2

"Well Rat I will say I might have had a crush on you as well." She said as she stepped closer to me. I backed up a bit and she tripped me. "Well you'll have to do better than that." She taunted me before licking my cheek.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked a bit annoyed.

"Well we should probably get dinner then we'll see where to go from there." It was like she had everything planned out from the beginning of the date. I followed her to some place I didn't recognize she turned around and smiled at me.

"My dad used to take my mom here." She said before sitting down I sat down next to her and we looked up at the sky.

"It's nice." I said and she moved next to me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Is it bad I'm sort of glad Claudette and Stinky are gone right now?" She asked I didn't know what she meant by that. "I mean they would probably be trying to pull a prank on us right now."

"I don't think so." I replied and she yawned.

"Sorry I'm just a bit tired from all the work Candy's been having me do." She said and I got an idea.

"Well we could always do this again sometime like maybe tomorrow night." I offered and she looked at me.

"Alright then it's a date so you better clean your fur for once." She kissed my cheek and walked off. I walked home feeling better than ever. I got home and told Lilly what happened, I had to whisper because the pups were asleep.

"well you might want to have garth take you hunting tomorrow before the date." Lilly whispered to me before I went to bed.

"Alright Rat get up." I woke up to see Garth with a big smile on his face. "Come on I'm going to teach you to hunt." He said, I got up and followed him to a field.

"But I thought omegas couldn't hunt." I replied

"Well Lilly told me you had a date tonight and you'll need something to eat." He answered so I went along with it.

"Alright now shoulders back." I mimicked him "Now jump!" He said as he took off and bit into a pinecone hanging from a tree, I copied and hit the tree head on.

"ow." I said as I rubbed my head, I looked at my paw to make sure I wasn't bleeding.

"Well you did better than Lilly her first time." Garth said I couldn't see that actually being true. He had me move back into position and try again this time I hit the ground before getting close to the pinecone.

"Hey Rat what are you two up to?" Runt asked as he walked down to us.

"I'm teaching Rat to hunt for his date tonight." Garth replied.

"I don't think that would be the best way to impress Cristie." Runt said before pulling me along with him.

"Where are we going?" I asked and he grinned.

"I'm going to help you get ready for your date."

"You just found out about it."

"I know."

"What relationship experience do you have?"

"My dad's thought a thing or two and he had a reputation." I rolled my eyes and decided I would just amuse myself. I walked with him until we came to his den.

"Dad Rat need's some advice on his date with Cristie tonight." Runt called out and his dad came walking in.

"Advice huh?" I couldn't believe this was actually happening to me. "Alright well we will have to start with…"

"Um I think I'm actually good on my own thank you very much." I replied before make my way to leave. When I ran directly into Cristie who was with the other female omegas.

"Ow." She said I got off her, she had a nervous smile on her face.

"Hey hey no seeing her until your date." Janet said as she blocked my view of her. Her sister Sydney and friend Cassie soon followed.

"Why's that?" Runt asked

"Mom says it's bad luck." Janet said

"I thought that was weddings." I replied all three glared at us. "Fine we'll turn around and you can go." We did and they left, I looked around and watched her leave.

"So Rat still think you don't need help?" Runt asked thinking that I would say no and I would need his help, but I shook my head no and left. I decided it would be best just to play it cool. Granted I did cut my mane a bit just so I could see out of both eyes for once. I looked down on a sheet of ice that was like a mirror I looked pretty good. Now all there was left to do was to pick her up. I walked to her den where she was getting a pep talk by her mom.

"Bring her back by ten." Salty told me and Sweets flashed him a look. "Fine eleven but no later." He corrected himself I said alright and Cristie walked over and the night began. She had her mane done and a purple flower by her ear.

"I know I look preppy." She groaned as we walked to the creek.

"It looks good." I replied she smiled.

"You look good to." I could tell we were both really nervous.

Runt's POV

"Everyone quiet." Candy said all the omegas were hiding throughout the underbrush.

"I bet he messes up." Cassie said I had to hide with her and the twins along with Mint.

"I bet he gets to first base." I shot back and Salty and Sweets glared at me. All of us had bets on how this was all going to play out.

The two walked side by side for what seemed like forever. No one knew why they picked the creek to go to, it really wasn't the most amazing spot in Jasper park.

"So any ideas on what we could do?" Rat asked and I hit my face with my paw.

"You didn't have anything planned?" Cristie replied she seemed a bit over joyed by that. "Well if you don't I have an idea."

"What's that?" Rat replied and she whispered something in his ear and he laughed a bit, before whispering something back whatever it was, it made Cristie's tail wag. The two began running to where we couldn't see them anymore. After a while the looks on Salty and Sweets' faces began to change to concern. It was around another hour before all of us got out of our hiding places.

'HEY!" We looked up the hill to see Rat and Cristie sending something our way. It was a log board full of something, it hit a rock and all of us were splashed with something. I licked my paw it was berry juice.

"Next time don't spy on us!" Crisite yelled down before starting to laugh along with Rat. It figured that they're first date would end in a prank. Finally when the two managed to pull themselves together it was time for them part ways. Before Cristie left though she kissed Rat on the cheek.

"I'll see you tomorrow, thanks for the wonderful night." She said before walking off with her parents.

"How did you two pull that off?" My dad asked and Rat sealed his lips with his paw before walking home.


	15. Chapter 15 One Week

Chapter 15 Christmas jealousy

Runt's POV

I couldn't wait Christmas was coming and that meant that the alphas would come home for a week so I could finally get a break from Rat and Cristie flirting with each other whenever they could. I swear sometimes it made me sick to see them like that.

"So Runt any plans with Magril Runt?" Rat asked I shook my head yes, I couldn't wait to ask her out.

"I can't wait to finally hang out with her again." I replied as the two of us walked to where they were supposed to arrive.

"So you think your sister and Fleet are together yet?" He asked me

"Probably not." I replied as we saw them walking over to us.

"RUNT!" My sister and brother called out before tackling me.

"HEY GET OFF ME!" I yelled and they did.

"Hey Rat you cut your mane." Stinky said

"Oh yeah it was for a date with Cristie last week." He said

"Wait you and Cristie actually went out?" Claudette asked

"Yeah you missed a lot while you were gone." I replied as I got up and saw Magril walking up to us.

"Like what?" Stinky asked

"Meeting Rat's family for one not as exciting as you would think. Rat and Cristie are a couple now." I said before gazing at the worst thing possible. Magril walked over to Stinky and whispered something in his ear.

"Not today Magril I was going to hang out with my family." Stinky replied before we left and headed to the den. Rat split off from us and headed to go home.

"So Claudette what was that about?" I asked

"Magril likes Stinky." She whispered in my ear and my heart shattered. I couldn't believe this, I felt betrayed. "But he doesn't like her so you still have a chance." I was beginning to dread them coming back.

"Um I'm going to go talk to Rat I'll see you two later." I said before breaking off from them and going to the only wolf I know has an actual girlfriend. By that I mean Mint like to brag he was dating both of the twins at once but we all knew he was lying. "Hey Rat can I talk to you?" He walked out of the den.

"How do I get Magril to like me?" I asked

"Um what do you mean?" He asked

"She likes my brother." I replied Rat looked at me than shrugged.

"Stinky's into an omega remember." He replied before walking back into his den and plan began to develop. I ran back to my den and pulled Stinky aside.

"Hey if this is about Magril you can have her." He said

"I want to help you with your crush." I replied and he looked at me and laughed.

"You! You haven't even had a girlfriend!"

"But Rat has one." I said

"I'm listening." He said and the two of us were off.

Claudette's POV

I was out looking for Fleet but instead of him I found myself talking to Magril. "Can you help me win over your brother?" She asked but I was currently fighting my own battles to win Fleet over but Cristie has a boyfriend.

"No but Cristie can." I replied and we ran to go find her. When we did finally find her she was with Rat the two were sitting on a log together.

"So want to go turn the creek blue?" She asked as we walked up.

"Hey Crisite we need your help with something private." I said she looked at Rat who motioned that it was ok and she followed us to somewhere private.

"Can you help Magril win Stinky over?" I asked and she gave me a blank look.

"Pardon?" She replied.

"We need your help Magril likes Stinky." I said again and she looked back at Rat who was walking off with my two brothers.

"Alright it's simple really just be flirty with him and try to tease him a little." She replied I thought it was the worst advice ever.

"And that works with Rat?" I asked a bit confused.

"Well not exactly we both liked each other and that's a different story." She said and my plan had just failed. "But what about Runt?" She asked and Magril looked nervously down at the ground. We went to go find the boys to try it out.

"Wait you're into Cassie?" Rat asked on the verge of laughing.

"Yeah I am." Stinky said seriously and it was like a stampede had just hit Magril. She began to sniff and Cristie walked out and grabbed Rat by the ear and pulled him to another bush. Magril ran off and I walked out of the bush to yell at Stinky.

"STINKY!" I yelled and he looked at me with fear in his eyes. "YOU MADE MAGRIL CRY!"

"Sorry Claudette but I just don't feel that towards Magril." He said before Runt ran off.

"What do you mean?" I yelled at him.

"Runt likes her I don't want to steal Magril from him." He shot back and I fell silent I had completely forgotten that Runt liked her. I walked over to see if I could find Rat and Cristie but they were preoccupied with throwing snow balls at each other.

Runt's POV

"Hey Magril." I called out to the crying wolf who was hiding in a hollow log. I took a deep breath and said everything I thought about her. "Magril I think you're the most beautiful, amazing, smartest, and kindness alpha in the world and if my brother can't see that then it's his loss." She moved out of the log and looked at me with tears in her eyes.

"This isn't some omega joke is it?" She asked it was the first time I heard speak out loud.

"No I mean every word." I said and she kissed me. I was already ahead of Rat! Now all that was needed was for Stinky to ask Cassie out and Claudette and Fleet to finally make it official and everything would be fine.

Stinky's POV

Ok I can do this I repeated to myself as I walked up to Cassie's den. Remember be brave and the sooner you ask the better. That was Rat's advice.

"Hey Stinky." She said as I walked up and I went for it.

"Hey Cassie I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me tomorrow?" I asked and she blushed.

"Um yeah sure defiantly." She began to walk backwards. "Yeah see you tomorrow." She ran into and laughed nervously. I couldn't wait for tomorrow.

Claudette's POV

"Hey Claudette are you busy tomorrow?" Fleet asked me

"Um no." I replied

"Do you want to go out?" He asked and my heart raced.

"YES!" I screamed then calmed myself. "Yeah sure whatever." I thought I covered myself.

Rat's POV

"Ok they're gone now." I told Cristie and she dropped her snow ball.

"Good now we can plan."

"I still don't think it's a good idea to do that." I replied and she stared at me.

"Well I;m doing it with or without your help."

"Fine I'll help."

(Sorry for the rapid POV switches and how short they were.)


	16. Chapter 16 Runaway

Chapter 16 Evil Geniuses

Rat's POV

Cristie's plan was terrible and I was dreading every moment I was apart of it. I followed her as she led further out of the territory. It was really early in the morning and we were about to pull off a really mean prank.

"Why are we doing this?" I asked as we turned and headed back towards the territory.

"Because it'll be funny trust me." She said as we headed to Runt's den. He and his siblings were sleeping, we shook them up.

"Hey guys you're going to be late." Cristie said in her fake concerned voice.

"WHAT!?" All three shot up and ran around getting ready for the day. Even their parents thought that it was night time as they to flew around the den. She was right this was pretty funny.

"Wait one minute. YOU TWO ARE SO DEAD!" Stinky yelled and we booked it as fast as we could, all three of them were chasing after us.

"RAT, CRISTIE GET BACK HERE!" All three yelled as we made our way to our escape route where a logboard was waiting for us. We hoped in and took off down the hill. We couldn't see anything and the next I know WHAM! We hit a rock and flew out, I ended up flying off the back and landing in a bush and on top of another wolf.

"OW! Rat!" I got off and the wolf tackled me it was Janet. Cristie knocked her off me and helped me up.

"Come on we have to hurry up and go." Cristie said as Stinky and Claudette came at us. We ran off and I was in the dog house when we stopped. "What was going on back there?" She stared me down.

"Nothing. She tackled me." I replied and Cristie tackled me.

"Like this?" She asked I felt blood rush to my face as she looked into my eyes and I looked up into hers and she kissed me.

"Hey you two get back here!" Claudette yelled but she didn't get off.

"OOOOOOOOO!" She looked up and her face went red.

"Um um." I looked over it was her mom.

"No need to explain." She said as Crisite got off me and we sat down. Expecting some form of lecture on appropriate behavior but instead her mother just left. Cristie looked at me and ran off, I didn't know why but I felt like I had done something wrong. Regardless I was the one caught and punished for our prank. Finally when the sun came up, I went to go check on Cristie.

"Um hi Rat." She seemed a little off she gave me a nervous smile.

"Is something wrong?" I asked and she looked down at the ground.

'Um it's nothing I'm just sick." I could tell it was a lie but I didn't want to pry into it too much. I left after that, it was weird I didn't see her the rest of the day, since everyone else was busy with each other I stayed home with Lilly and the pups. They had just now started walking around the den. I laid down, the runt of the liter Maria was the only omega. She had Lilly's fur color and Garth's eyes. She climbed on top of my head and Lilly began giggling as she stumbled off.

"She seems to like you." Lilly said as the two other pups climbed on top of her.

"Yeah." I replied I played with Maria for the rest of the day. The next day I went to check on Cristie again this time she didn't even come to the entrance like yesterday, so I walked in.

"Hey Cristie." I said she didn't even look at me.

"Rat can you please leave." She asked I was beginning to get concerned.

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked

"Rat, I don't want to you to get in trouble because of me anymore. I think we should break up and not hang out with each other anymore." She said and my whole world shattered. I left to in shock to cry, I didn't know what to do. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and have caribou trample me. I went home to heartbroken to do anything.

"Rat are you alright?" Runt asked me as he and Magril walked into the den.

"No, Cristie just broke up with me." I replied not wanting to move.

Runt's POV

I left Lilly's den and headed straight for Cristie's. Rat seemed to be completely destroyed by what she had done and I wanted to know why it happened. Magril came with me telling me not to get involved with this but I has made up my mind on the situation.

"Cristie what's going on with you and Rat?" I asked and she turned to me. She had tears in her eyes, I couldn't believe she would've broken up with him and been crying about it.

"Runt it's none of your business." She sniffed and continued to cry. Magril pulled me out and we walked home. I felt bad for the two cause it seemed like that shouldn't have happened and I hoped it wouldn't happen with Magril and me.

"Runt promise me we won't end up like them." She said a bit worried, but I was too worried about how Rat.

"I promise." I replied before going home where my family was gathered. I explained to them what had happened today and everyone seemed to be rather surprised by it. We would occasionally check up on Rat but in the morning he was gone.


	17. Chapter 17 Reunion

Chapter 17 Reunion.

Rat's POV

I was off, I ran through the territory to the cave I had found when I was younger. I moved through it as fast as possible, I took the tunnel on the left. I ran through it though I hit several rocks and kept running. I didn't want to go back, I eventually jumped into the river after a day of nonstop running. I couldn't believe last time it took me so long but I was younger and didn't move as fast. Eventually I came to the shore and began to follow the river. I wasn't going to turn back not now anyways.

After around two days of nonstop walking, I ended up close to a mountain. I ended up sleeping in a cave that night. I was sad, lonely, and began to cry. I missed Cristie, Lilly, Garth, everyone, but I didn't feel like I could go back. I moved through the deep snow the next morning up the mountain that I was soon going to call home after I found a den.

Runt's POV

"What do you mean he ran away!?" Cristie has stopped crying and was completely pissed off with everyone including herself.

"I told you he ran away he went through that cave again." I responded and she sat down and began to sob.

"This is all my fault." She said everyone was trying to cheer her up.

"Cristie you couldn't have known that he was going to do this." Her mom said as she held her close. I left the den we were in and began to walk off.

"Where are you going?" Claudette asked.

"After him." I replied

"You're crazy Christmas is tomorrow Runt." Stinky said

"I know and I'm going after him. I'll see you maybe when I get back." And I ran off as fast as possible towards the cave where I knew he would've made his escape. I eventually traveled all the way down it to a room with three other caves and I realized I was completely lost. I took the one on the left and realized I couldn't see when I got to the other side but I could smell Rat's scent on the rocks. I pushed on and began walking just hoping that I would be able to catch up with him. I found myself wondering blindly through the darkness following my friends scent then it occurred to me, how would I get him to come back with me?

I walked until I couldn't go on any more and I had to sleep. I figured I had been walking all day because I had never felt this tired before. I fell asleep on the cold damp cave floor I woke up and kept going. Today must be Christmas I thought to myself as I kept going on.

Rat's POV

I woke up from my den and walked out into the snow. I was high up on top of the mountain, I could see a part of jasper from where I stood. It was so tiny, I turned away and began to explore my new territory. It had been a full week now I was surprised it took me so long to get up here. I spotted two wolves moving through the forest I hoped they wouldn't find me up here, I wasn't much of a fighter after all. I walked all over the mountain exploring it till I finally got hungry.

Runt's POV

"RUNT!" I heard a voice call out it was Cristie I could smell her getting closer.

"What are you doing here?" I asked but I knew she was searching for Rat same as me.

"Hurry up and let's go the faster we get him the faster we can go home." She said and two of us began walking until we finally fell into an ice cold river. The current took us by surprise as we tried to stay afloat until we finally hit shore. Rat's scent was gone so we had to search all of the nearby forest which took the two of us a long three days. Cristie had begun to grow desperate and every night she cried herself to sleep. I felt overly bad for her she felt awful about everything.

"Runt you don't need to stay here anymore." She told me

"Cristie he's my friend to you know." I replied as she stood up and looked down at me.

"I'm going to go look for him some more please stay here and in the morning go home." She said before walking off.

Rat's POV

It was late at night when I heard screaming, it was the type of screaming that could only be hear when a person was terrified. I sprung up as I heard it again, it sounded like Cristie I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me but I ran after it anyways. I kept hearing as I ran until I came across a group of wolves surrounding another. The group kept lashing at whoever was in the middle and biting and scratching them. I jumped on the middle and the wolf was Cristie, she wasn't hurt just scared. She was curled into a ball on the ground.

"Leave her alone." I said as I stood over her and another wolf joined me it was Runt.

"Hey King look who's back!" One of the wolves yelled out as they made way for an older wolf.

"King?" Runt said in confusion and I lunged for the lead wolf. I sank my teeth into his shoulder and another wolf knocked me off him and put his paw on my throat.

"GET OF FHIM!" Cristie yelled as she shoved him off I got up and put myself in front of her. I began to growl and snarl and the wolf charged at me I jumped on him and wrestled him to the ground. He bit into the sides of my neck as another wolf jumped me and dug his teeth into my left shoulder.

"RAT!" Cristie yelled as someone knocked off the wolf, I got up and another wolf dug his teeth back into my neck. I passed out due to blood loss.

Runt's POV

I couldn't believe the alphas of our pack came to find us. Mom came running over to me as the rogues began to retreat. Cristie ran over to Rat and started putting snow on his neck and packing it down to help stop the bleeding. Rat was out cold, Cristie's teacher began helping her with the injured omega. We had no way of getting him back to our territory so we had to wait the night out. Cristie wouldn't leave his side as we set up a little area to sleep. Rat's bleeding eventually stopped after ice formed on his fur where he was bitten. (Not sure if that actually works but let's roll with it)

"Well is he going to make it?" Garth asked Candy who looked really concerned.

"I'm not sure, he might make it and if he does there is a chance he'll become mute again." She replied

"Cristie what exactly happened?" Mom asked and she looked up from Rat.

"I was looking for Rat and those wolves came out of now where, next thing I know Rat jumped and began defending me from them." She replied

"One of us should go get a logboard to put him on so we can take him back." Candy suggested.

"I'll go." Garth said before running off. Now all we could do is wait for him to come back and hope Rat didn't die before then.


	18. Chapter 18 Rehab and Goodbye

Chapter 18 Rehab and Goodbye

(Sorry another short chapter)

Runt's POV

After a rough night of switching snow on Rat and making sure he lived through it we were all worn out as Garth came back with the sled. We carefully lifted Rat into and began to push it back towards home. Rat stirred in his sleep and Cristie got in with him making our job harder. It took us an entire day and night to push him back into the Northern territory. There their healer and ours worked together to help make sure he would live. Cristie would leave him despite us saying he would be ok and she should get some rest. So I decided to stay with her, just to make sure she could actually get some rest. We waited for another day before Rat actually opened his eyes.

"Rat!" Cristie exclaimed as tears formed in her eyes. "YOU'RE AN IDIOT TAKING ON ALPHAS LIKE THAT FOR A GIRL THAT DUMPED YOU!" She screamed

"I'm sorry." He said weekly

"Promise me you won't don't do that again, I love you!" She cried as the tears began to fall from her onto him.

"Cristie…" Rat could barely talk as she nuzzled him gently.

"I'm sorry." She said over and over again before Rat fell asleep once again. Cristie slept next to him that night. Rat woke up the next day and I left the den so he and Cristie could talk in private.

Rat's POV

"So why did you break up with me?" I asked Cristie who began to look pitiful.

"I didn't want you to get into trouble anymore." She said "I'm sorry I've been an idiot."

"Well I guess that makes you my idiot." She looked overjoyed and licked my cheek.

"Can you stand yet?" She asked and I tried I was barely able to though she did help me walk out and head back to our territory with Runt. They led me back to my den where after being scolded by Lilly I was left to rest. All in all Lilly grounded me for a week I was to get off just with that though. But Cristie was still mad at me for getting hurt in her words "Only and omega with a death wish would charge in there head on like an idiot." She didn't even say thank you Rat for saving me but oh well she was back to her old self mostly except she didn't want to pull to many more pranks.

"Rat wake up." Maria said as she shook my shoulder. I opened my eyes and she smiled. "Come on let's play." She said as she climbed on top of me it hurt a lot. I winced in pain and Lilly came and pulled her off me.

"Maria he can't right now he needs to rest." Lilly told her and she scuffed as Cristie walked in she recleaned my injuries and licked my face. She still seemed like she felt guilty of everything. After a week I could finally start walking around with a bit of help. I found myself talking to Runt, Cassie, and Cristie one afternoon.

"You two are lucky." Runt said addressing Cristie and me.

"What do you mean?" I asked

"Well Magril and Stinky are at alpha school you two are both omegas soyou get to spend time with each other." Cassie replied.

"Well actually I'll be heading there today to finish my training." Cristie said it was news to me, so I bit in shock about it. "Don't worry I'll be back by spring."

"Alright well good luck." I replied

"Oh don't be so worried." She said before getting up to leave. "I have to go say bye to my parents and other family before meeting Candy so we can leave." She licked my face. "I'll see you when I get done with my training." She ran off before I could say anything in return.


	19. Chapter 19 Growing up

Chapter 19 Growing up

Rat's POV

"Rat wake up you said you would take me to the cave today." Maria said before pulling on my ear. I opened my left eye and she climbed on top of me. "Get up." She said while pressing down on my head.

"Is it spring yet?" I asked and she dropped down in front of me.

"No you said three weeks till spring so get up." She replied

"Alright I'm up." I yawned and she climbed on my back and I began walking. She liked feeling like she was taller than everyone else. She stuck her tongue out as we passed her brothers who were busy learning things from Garth.

"Hey wait Maria we want to come to." Traves called out as he and Fallo ran after us.

"Wow you two get back here." Garth said as he grabbed them, he wanted them to be as strong as him I guess it was an alpha thing.

"Bye." She taunted them as we walked off. "Alphas are stupid." She stated as we got close to the cave.

"What do you mean?" I asked

"I mean alphas aren't as smart as omegas." I couldn't help but laugh at her comment.

"Whatever you say." I replied knowing if I agreed she would tell her brothers and if I disagreed it would start a conversation I didn't want to get into with her seeing how I was originally supposed to be an alpha. I walked into the cave and the little cub's awe was a great reward. She climbed off me and ran around looking up at the hole in the ceiling.

"Rat this is so awesome!" She screamed as she ran around with her tail wagging. I couldn't help but laugh at her as she ran seeing if she could get an echo. After thirty minutes it was time to leave, I allowed her to climb back up on my back and we headed back home.

Stinky's POV

"Cristie we have another wolf with a sprung paw." Candy called out and the omega came rushing to my aid. The training was getting tougher and so the injuries that we would occasionally suffer were getting more numerous.

"Just three more weeks." I said to her and she smiled.

"Yeah I wonder how the omegas are doing." She said as she wrapped my paw in some large skinny leaf.

"I bet they're fine, probably getting lonely without us though." I answered as Fleet walked in rubbing his head with him was Claudette.

"What happened with you?" I asked

"Claudette." He replied we were practicing fighting today and several of the alpha trainees had gotten hurt in their skirmishes with each other.

"Candy can you get him?" Cristie asked but she was busy handling Ed who had chipped a tooth on a rock when he hit the ground.

"I'm busy you'll have to take care of Fleet." Candy called back.

"One sec Stinky." She moved over to Fleet and sat him down, she went outside and got some left over snow and put it in a large leaf and placed it on his head. "Claudette hold that there." Claudette obeyed and Cristie came back to me.

"So you think Rat's fine?" I had only heard what had happened and never actually saw the injuries myself.

"He's probably being too reckless." She hissed as she tightened the leaf.

"Hey.' I said in discomfort.

"Relax and stay off your paw." She advised before going back to Fleet. "As for you it just seems like you have a knot on your head keep snow on it and the swelling should go down."

Runt's POV

"Two weeks." I said I had been keeping track of the days on the den wall. Dad looked at me confused on why I was so excited. "Two weeks till they come home."

"Oh." He said as Rat came by with him was Maria she stood on top of his head.

"Attention omegas presenting the one only supreme omega Maria." She gestured to herself and jumped off Rat's head and onto the ground.

"Supreme omega?" I questioned the little pup only to receive a death stare.

"Shut up." I looked at Rat who quickly grabbed her mouth.

"Wonder who taught her that…" He laughed nervously my dad raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah interesting." Dad said before I left with them.

"So two weeks huh are you excited?" I asked Rat who just shrugged. "Really? I thought you were in love." My taunt hit the right cords and Maria began to laugh.

"Who is she?" Maria asked I glared at Rat who gave me a death stare.

"She's Rat's girlfriend." I said and Rat was dreading every moment of it. Maria knew of Magril so he couldn't shoot back at me.

"Yeah I miss her, but my brother will be coming to visit soon and he'll probably want me to lead the pack with him Runt." He said I had forgotten about that and felt stupid.

"So what are you going to do about it?" I replied.

"I don't know it's not like we talk all the time." He said clearly with a desire to change the topic.

"Alright fine so are you asking Cristie to the Moon Light Howl?" I asked and a look of despair fell over him.

"I never learned how to howl…." He muttered and I had to hide my laughter.

Cristie's POV

"So are you and Rat planning on going to Moon Light Howl?" Candy asked me as we began to start our day.

"He didn't ask before I left." I replied as I did my mane

"I'm sure he will." Candy replied as our first customer came in it and we got to work.

"Well even if he doesn't its fine with me." I replied as I wrapped the alphas leg and Candy moved onto fixing the plate in Tony's back.

"You're the only girl who would say that." She replied as she set the disc back into place.

"And I pride myself on that." I said and she snickered.

"Well it's not like he'll be that troublemaking pup anymore." I knew she was talking about the pranks and running away one time on accident the other my fault. "Of course you were the one he was doing all those things for." She replied and I stuck my nose up in the air.

"How dare you accuse me." I teased causing us both to laugh.

"So what do you think he's up to?"

"He probably just woke up." 

Rat's POV

"Come on!" Maria jumped on top of me I got up and rubbed my eyes.

"Maria what did I say about waking me up so early?" I asked but she had an enormous smile on her face so I let it slide this time.

"But this is important!" She yelled

"Lilly?" I complained and Lilly laughed.

"Just go on and amuse her tomorrow I'll play with her in the morning so you can sleep." With that I followed her to what appeared to be a small den.

"I found a small hide out." She exclaimed as she pushed her way into the small little hole.

"I see, so where can I get in?" I asked

"You can't." She said before putting her paw in my face.

"Why's that?" Wanting to hear the more than likely nonsensical answer.

"Because you have a girlfriend therefore have you have cooties." Well that was a role reversal.

"Um Maria girls are the ones with cooties." I corrected her.

"Oh, but you still can't come in because you have a girlfriend." I rolled my eyes at her argument.

"Oh fine she comes back in three days anyways then maybe I'll have someone nice to hang out with." I taunted and Maria climbed out of the hole.

"But you'll still have time for me right?" I rubbed her mane she liked having it rough looking and unkept despite Lilly's arguing against it.

"Of course I will." I said before catching a wiff of breakfast. "Now let's go eat." With that we raced each other to get breakfast.


	20. Chapter 20 Homecoming

Chapter 20 Homecoming

Runt's POV

"Rat hurry up they're on their way here!" I cried out in excitement but my friend was busy with three pups on top of him.

"A little busy Runt." He replied and I groaned before running off to finally see my girlfriend again. I ran to see the newly graduated alphas walking into the territory with their heads held high. Every omega watched in awe as they separated to find their parents. In the back was Cristie equally proud as every alpha she scanned the crowd and walked over to me.

"Where's Rat?" She asked a bit concerned.

"He's busy." I replied before leaving her to go see Magril she looked even prettier than before.

"Runt!" She called out as she saw me, she ran over and hugged me tightly. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you to." I said as I hugged her back.

"Cassie!" I heard my brother call out as she came running for him the two embraced each other. Everyone was finally back home though Cristie seemed to be disappointed that Rat was around to see her like everyone else's partner.

"Rat!" She said in surprise as he came walking to her with Maria on his back and Traves and Fallo following close beside him.

"Hey sorry I'm late." He said as she spotted the three pups.

"Are these Lilly's?" She asked and Maria jumped down.

"Is this the girl you've been talking about in your sleep?" She asked and Rat quickly covered her mouth and Traves and Fallo piped up.

"Yeah he does said he loooovvvvveeeeeedddd you." They said at the same time and Cristie began to laugh.

"You three are so dead." He said as he let go of Maria and the three began running with rat running after them.

"Um is this normal?" Magril asked me I had to sadly nod.

"Rat!" Cristie called out before letting out a loud groan and walking down to the rest of us.

"Well Cristie looks like you have some competition now." I said she was dreading this I could tell. "Hey he did miss you despite the fact he has to pup sit currently." She lightened up a bit.

"Well he could've said something." Claudette said as she and Fleet walked over.

"Well those three are more than a handful." Dad said as he walked over to us.

"Hey dad!" Stinky and Claudette said as they hugged him.

"How are my two alphas?" He asked

"Glad to be back." They both said at the same time.

"Yeah…" Cristie muttered still mad at Rat. Who came back this time without the pups he saw that she was mad and gulped knowing she was about to lay into him.

"You couldn't come wait for me like everyone else?" She asked on the verge of yelling.

"Sorry I had to pup sit." He said and she eased up a bit.

"Alright fine you're off the hook for now at least." She said before hugging him. "But were they telling the truth?"

"Yeah I guess they were." He muttered so she could hear him and Cassie and Claudette began to giggle a little.

"Well I thinks that rather cute." She said before kissing them.

"Okay break it up you you're a little young to be having pups." Dad called out to the two and they stopped kissing.

"Maybe after we're married." Cristie said in a flirty tone before walking over to us and rubbing her tail in Rat's face.

"Hmph yeah." Rat said as he followed her.

"Hey Magril could I talk to you?" I asked and she followed me off to where we were alone. I took a deep breath. "Will you go to the Moon Light Howl with me?" I asked

"YES!" She screamed before quickly silencing herself. "I mean yeah sure whatever." I snickered a little and we walked back to the group.

Rat's POV

"Well aren't you going to ask me anything?" Cristie asked I knew she meant the howl but I couldn't howl so I decided to play dumb.

"Well yeah are you doing anything later tonight?" I asked and she looked somewhat pleased with the question.

"No meet me at my place at seven." She said before walking off. I hit myself in the head and repeated the word idiot to myself in my head.

Cristie's POV

I walked off knowing that Rat was going to ask me to the howl tonight. I found the other girls who were all excited by the upcoming event. It was all we could talk about.

"So Rat ask you yet?" Magril asked as we walked into the cave that held the hot spring.

"Who goes there?" A small pup jumped out growling at us. I recognized her as one of Lilly's pups. "This is an omega only cave." She said confident in herself.

"Um who are you?" Magril asked a bit offended all of us were.

"I'm Rat's younger sister Maria." She said proudly. I was amazed she felt so proud to be his sister. "And this is his cave!" She growled glaring at me.

"Well can we pass?" I asked

"Hmph only if I can go with you." She replied so we let the little pup come along with the rest of us. Eventually we got back onto the topic of the Moon Light Howl.

"So Maria does your brother plan on asking me to it?" I asked and she stuck up her nose.

"No." She said I couldn't believe it. "He's nervous because for some reason he can't howl." It must have been all throat injuries I felt horrible because I was the cause of most of them. "Besides I don't see why an alpha like him would settle for an omega." This caught Claudette's and Magril's attention.

"Wait alpha?" They asked at the same time.

"Yeah he and Runt were talking about it earlier how he was supposed to be an alpha in his old pack. He never said why he wasn't though." Then she looked at me.

"I guess your not all bad. Just as long as you don't hurt him." She had a lot of her grandmother in her that much was fairly clear to everyone.

"Maria are you in here?" It was Rat he walked up onto the ledge and looked down. "Come on we have to get going." He called down but I turned away from him and he jumped down. "What's wrong?"

"You weren't planning on asking me to the howl." I said

"That's a lie I just needed to learn how to." He replied and I relaxed a bit more I hated this emotional roller coaster. Maria got on his back and the two were off.

"He's good with kids." Magril said I nodded my head in agreement it was like a dream came true he really was going to ask me after all.


	21. Chapter 21 The Cub

Chapter 21 The Cub

Runt's POV

"Wait you found a den?" I asked as I walked beside Rat who was moving out of Lilly's and Garth's den.

"Yeah, Cristie wanted me to find one." He replied as we walked up to the old cave he found.

"Really here of all places?" I asked I honestly didn't know what I was expecting when I heard he found one. "Besides you and Cristie aren't even mated yet and she just got back."

"Yeah I know that this was just for future reference." He said like I should've known that. "hey do you smell that?" he asked it smelled like a lion Rat walked out and motioned for me to follow. I did and outside the cave was a mountain lion cub Rat walked over to it.

"I think we should keep it." Rat said

"No no no! That is a mountain lion and we're wolves. We should get the alphas and have to take care of it." I said but Rat picked up the little guy like he did with the pups and brought it into the cave. Why does he have to be so stubborn? I asked myself as I followed him. The little cub roared at me and Rat laughed.

"I guess he doesn't like you." Rat said I couldn't believe this was happening.

"I'm telling Cristie." I said

"Go ahead." Rat replied and I ran off hopefully she could put a stop to this madness. I told her everything and we ran back to the cave to find Rat playing with the cub.

"It's so cute!" Cristie exclaimed as she walked over to the little cub. "Well Rat if you want to take care of it I'm up for it." She nuzzled Rat before cleaning the cat's fur.

"Ugh fine you two enjoy being parents." I groaned before leaving. I walked home luckily my parents weren't home yet but my siblings were.

"Runt's what's wrong?" Claudette asked.

"Rat and Cristie just adopted a cat." I said still awe struck.

"I always knew they would have kids at a young age I just thought they would be wolves." Stinky said he actually made a joke what is with everyone today?

"Oh shut up Stinky." Claudette said

"Maybe we should go try to talk some sense to them." Stinky said and the three of us began walking to the cave. We saw Cristie laying down next to sleeping cub, this was going to be harder than we had originally thought.

"Hey Rat can we talk to you?" Claudette asked kindly he walked over to us and we walked a few feet away.

"Are you an idiot? That's a mountain lion you know those cat's that hate wolves." Stinky said

"Yeah I know and we're keeping it." He replied

"We?" Claudette asked

"Yes, we Cristie and I are keeping the cub." He said before walking back to the cave and lying next to Cristie.

"Ok we need to call in the big guns." Stinky said we left and came back with Garth, mom, dad, and Lilly. Rat and Cristie were up with playing with the cub again.

"It's kind of cute." Dad said and this was going to go south quick.

"We aren't letting them keep it." Mom said

"Yeah a lion has no place in a wolf pack." Garth backed her up.

"Well I mean we could let them keep it." Dad said yep this went south.

"Really what's the harm?" Lilly asked the two walked over to see the cub.

"We need to divide Cristie and Rat and fast." Mom said and we all huddled to formulate a new plan of attack.

Rat's POV

"Rat who's your friend there?" Humphrey asked as he and Lilly walked into the cave. The cub backed up behind Cristie.

"His name is Vance." I replied and Cristie told our cub it was okay.

"Well it's nice to see you've moved in together and had a kid faster than any wolf I know." Humphrey joked I thought it was rather funny.

"Humphrey!" Lilly said sternly and Humphrey quieted down. "Well it's nice to see everything's working out with you two if you need anything don't be afraid to ask." She said before the two left.

"Hey Rat." I turned around and the cub was on top of Cristie's head. "What are we going to feed him?" She asked I hadn't thought about it.

"Well I guess caribou." I replied

"I think he's hungry could you go see if you can get any?" She asked I nodded and I was off. Of course I had no idea how to actually hunt so I decided just to wing it. I headed to the hunting grounds it felt weird not being on the cliff that over looked them. I found myself running through the field trying to catch up the caribou it safe to say that hunting wasn't my thing but I was able to get one barely. Dragging it back to the den was a pain but I did it anyways.

"Rat you got a whole caribou!" Cristie exclaimed she was just as shocked as me. I brought it in and the cub began eating it.

"Yeah." I said and we began eating. That night Vance cuddled up next to Cristie and me and fell asleep.

"If his parents come back we have to give him back you know." She whispered.

"I know. Night." I whispered.

"Night." She whispered back and we went to sleep. In the morning Vance jumped on us. "I guess it's time to get up." Cristie licked my face and we got up.

"Morning." I said as Cristie's parents walked in to the cave they didn't look to happy.


	22. Chapter 22 Caught

Chapter 22 Caught

Rat's POV

"Time to get up already?" I asked as I got up and stretched myself out.

"Yeah little guy wakes up earlier than Maria." Cristie said as she nuzzled our little cub. "We should take him though the territory." I thought it was a bad idea but knew she wasn't going to listen to me so I went along with it. The cub got on Cristie's back and we began our walk. She wanted to go to her parents den despite my objections.

"Mom, dad." She said both of them were up and almost freaked out when they saw Vance.

"Cristie can we talk to you?" She handed me Vance and walked out of the den with her parents. When they came back Cristie didn't look to happy she picked up Vance who was playing with a pinecone and we left.

"Well?" I said

"They think you're just doing this to mate with me. Something about acting like we're mates will make it happen or something stupid like that." She said a bit more hostile than I had hoped. "But my mom says that we're doing the right thing." She took a deep breath as we continued on our walk.

"Cristie are you sure you're ready to move in with me?" I asked and she laughed.

"I've known you since you were a kid I think I know what I'm getting into." She laughed as the cub jumped down and began walking beside us.

"I guess you have me there." I replied

"I know. So where to now?" She asked

"Well I was following you." I replied

"Of course you were." She said and she led the way back to our den.

Runt's POV

"They seem to be happy." Stinky said as we spotted Rat and Cristie walking with their cat. We hadn't seen Claudette all morning so we were out looking for her.

"I bet she snuck off with Fleet." I said trying not to think about Rat and that stupid cat.

"We already went to the northern territory." Stinky replied which was true

"You don't think they sneaked out together to you know?" I asked and Stinky hit his face with his paw.

"If they did then they're both going to have grandma rip their throats out." He said we continued searching for another couple of hours until we finally gave up on it.

"I bet she's at home by now." Stinky said we walked back to our den and surely enough there she was happy as could be but something smelled off about her. Dad caught the scent to and Claudette's smile faded.

"You and Fleet huh? I would've expected Runt to this!" He yelled my brother and I exchanged confused glances.

"No dad I swear, I hadn't seen him since we got back!" She yelled and I got what he meant now.

"What makes you think I would do that?" I asked and my dad turned his attention to me.

"Because you take after me more than your mother." Unfortunately mom heard that as she walked in.

"So you're saying I wasn't your first." She said angrily

"Um well you see there was this one time that…"

"Can it omega and Claudette why do you smell like Fleet?" It seemed like everything was going full circle.

"Because he and I were making out." She said quickly and my parents believed it.

"What about the cat that Rat adopted and he's living with Cristie so why is no one going after him?" Stinky asked to help save Claudette.

"Because those two aren't going to be able to go at it with a cub with them." Dad said rolling his eyes like it was obvious. Late at night I spotted Claudette sneaking out, I shook Stinky and we followed her to a small cave waiting for her was Fleet. Not to get to graphic but what happened next was scarring to gaze upon. We ran back to our den and grabbed our dad who came running to the scene.

"CLAUDETTE!" he yelled and they stopped frightened.

"Dad what are you doing here?" She asked

"Stopping you from getting pregnant." He said as he glared at Fleet who was cowering. I must admit everything that happened next was great from the yelling to Claudette being utterly humiliated to the fact that she was grounded from her first hunt. I meant great sarcastically by the way. In all honesty I felt bad for her all she did was give into temptation. Dad lectured Stinky and me on not copying our sister's example and made us promise not to do the same. The next the day I headed to Rat's to see if they got rid of the stupid cat yet. It was still there messing with Rat.

"Where's mommy?" I teased and he snickered a little.

"We're just waiting till his mom comes back Runt besides I should be asking you since Cristie was told to make sure your sister wasn't pregnant." He replied sharp witted as ever.

"So want to teach the cub to logboard?" I asked and we went out to find a small hill and log.

"Don't tell Cristie about this." He told the cub as he began his journey down the hill to me. I hated to admit it but the cub was kind of cute.

"So Rat have you and Cristie done it yet seeing how you're living together?" I asked he shook his head no.

"I don't feel like dying yet." He replied as the cub began to climb a tree causing some leaves to fall down on us.

"Well how is living with her?" I asked as the cub slid down the side of the tree.

"It's great. You're not jealous are you?" He asked as he picked up the cub. "Well I'll see you later." Rat left and I went home.


	23. Chapter 23 Plans

Chapter 23 Plans

Rat's POV

It was time to say good bye to our little cub. We woke up to find the mother standing at the entrance of our den next to her was Vance.

"Thank you for watching my cub." She said before picking him up and leaving. Cristie nuzzled up to me as we watched the two leave.

"I want a pup." She said and I grew concerned immediately.

"Ummm-"

"When we're married." She giggled "Well I have to get going to the healer's den I'll see you later tonight."

"Alright bye." I said we left the den at the same time. I headed to Runt's to see what he was up to. I must admit it was kind of lonely not having Vance with me as I entered the den, Claudette was in the corner for obvious reasons.

"Hey Runt Vance's mom came and picked him up this morning." I announced.

"Really no more cat?" He asked and I nodded. "Good cause we need you and Cristie to get into trouble." He said

"Wait why?" I asked

"To get mom and dad out of the den long enough for Claudette to see Fleet. I'll be distracting Nars by getting into trouble with Magril." He said and I sighed

"Is this so she can get laid again." I replied and Stinky growled. "I'll clear with Cristie it's not like they can really punish us anyways."

"Great cause we need you two to do something similar to what Claudette and Fleet did." He replied

"What's in it for me?" I asked and he pondered it for a moment.

"I won't tell about your little secret status change." He replied now I had to help the guy out, Cristie would kill me if I became an alpha.

"Fine but if anything bad happens I'm telling them this was all your idea." I replied as I went to tell Cristie what was going on.

Runt's POV  
"What status change?" Stinky asked

"none of your business and Claudette you owe us big time." I said

"I know. Thanks you guys." She said I couldn't believe we were all getting into trouble just so she could see Fleet.

"Well then we should go ready for tonight then Runt." Stinky said and the two of us walked off to find our partners in crime. Magril wasn't to happy about the idea however and only went along with it because everyone was getting in trouble.

"Runt you do what happens to them is going to happen to us right?" she asked we had set up ourselves in a nearby cave and waited for the signal to start making suggestive noises.

"I know but Claudette said it was important for her to see him." I replied and she kissed me.

"You're to kind." We heard a fake bird call it was time, we got into a weird position and started making noise.

Cristie's POV

"Rat come on or this plan won't work." I said as the fake bird call was sounded he was looking around at the entrance to the cave.

"Yeah yeah one sec I have to go check something out." He replied I face palmed as I smelled them getting closer to us so I started making noise without him. Now there was no way this was going to work. My parents walked over and looked at me stangely.

"Um Cristie are you alright?" Dad asked and mom walked closer to me.

"You aren't in heat are you?" She whispered.

"No I'm fine I was just um doing some vocal warm ups." I replied it was crappy lie.

"Um ok where's Rat?" Humphrey asked

"He went somewhere I'm not sure where exactly he went though." I replied

Runt's POV

"RUNT! MAGRIL!" plan successful Nars had caught us we quickly put on our we're sorry faces and tried stalling him as long as possible hoping that mom was busy with dealing Stinky and Casssie while dad was dealing with Rat and crap I spotted Rat running through the trees.

"Rat what happened to the plan!" I yelled at him and Nars stared at us.

"Plan?" he asked then his eyes widened "Fleet!" he yelled plan failed. I ran after Rat and Magril followed.

"Rat what happened?" I yelled out to him as he jumped and hit something in mid-air. I passed Fleet who was growling and standing in front of Claudette. We found Rat on top of a pitch black wolf growling and snarling.

"You caught me." The wolf said as Rat put his paw against his throat.

"Why were you attacking them?" Rat asked as Nars and my parents arrived pissed at us for pulling the stunt.

"Rat get off me." The black wolf said before pushing Rat off and into me allowing him to escape.

"Rat get off me." I said as he stood up out of breath.

"What is this all about?" Mom asked Claudette and Fleet sternly.

"Mom um Fleet and I need to get married, I'm….pregnant." Everyone's jaws dropped at the news.


	24. Chapter 24 Weddings, Howls, and Alphas

Chapter 24 Weddings, Howls, and Alphas.

Runt's POV

Needless to say Claudette and Fleet were dead wolves walking now to my dad which only made him more concerned about Stinky and me. Mom on the other hand couldn't wait to be a grandmother so there was now some conflict of interests in the den. Especially when it came to the wedding, my brother and I didn't want to pick sides but we were more on mom's side. She thought it was a good idea I guess she assumed it would happen eventually. Dad thought it was a bad idea however, I guess he didn't think the two were in love. As for Rat he doesn't really seem to care while Cristie is worried Claudette won't make it through the child birth.

"Rat where are you off to?" I asked as I saw him walking down to the valley.

"Just a little ways out of the territory please don't tell Cristie." He asked it was an odd request since the two now live together and always tell each other where they're going to be.

"Alright…." I was hesitant but Rat was already gone before I could object. I went to go find Fleet for the bachelor party. They wanted to get married before the Moon Light Howl on top of the ledge and when the wedding is over they would start off the howl. Since the howl was tomorrow that meant we would have to prepare everything tonight along with having the parties.

"Hey Fleet are you ready?" I asked with him were Ed and Stinky. Of course none of knew anything about a bachelor party.

Maria's POV

I followed my brother out of the territory, I was mad at him because he was spending more time with Cristie than me. I was planning on chewing him out when I caught up with him something seemed odd though he was invited to go along with the bachelor party but he didn't. Mom said it must be something going on between him and Cristie so he might just need his space. Rat stopped in a field just beyond the extension of our territory so I walked out.

"Rat!" I yelled and he turned around

"Maria? What are you doing out here?" He asked

"You haven't been spending any time with me." I complained and he quickly pushed me out of the way as a larger pitch black wolf lunged for me. It had to be the same one that attacked Claudette and Fleet yesterday.

"Judas what's wrong with you?" My brother asked but the wolf just growled and snarled, he had blood lust in his eyes. I was terrified I couldn't move.

"Maria run home as fast as you can." Rat instructed me and I took off. I looked behind me to see the two circling each other before finally attacking.

Rat's POV

I didn't want to hurt my brother but it seemed like I really didn't have an option anymore. I hit his face with my paw thinking that if I just used blunt force he might snap out of it. He staggered a bit before charging me again. I moved out of the way, I figured if I stalled him long enough Maria would come back for help and he would run off. He charged me and I moved out of the way again, I head butted his side sending him into a nearby tree. He got back up and tried to bite me again this time I used shoulder to slam into his throat and into the ground.

"Judas stop this." I cried out and he spun around.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up." He held his head and looked at me again he must have lost his mind. He ran at me again this time I jumped back before he could bite me but he kept coming and slammed into my chest. I hit the ground hard and gasped for air as he began to choke me. I reach up with my paw and scratched his eye causing him to fall back off me. I got up and lunged for him sinking my teeth into his shoulder, he howled in pain and scratched my nose with his claws.

"Judas you have to stop." I said again something had to be wrong with him mentally cause he kept grabbing his head and yelling at himself.

Maria's POV

"DAD!" I yelled as loud as I could everyone seemed to be so happy and walking around I couldn't find anyone that could help or believe me.

"Maria what's wrong?" I turned around to see mom.

"Rat's *gasp* fight* wolf*gasp*" I couldn't breath

"I'm sure it was just a nightmare he told me he was going to stay home today." She replied and I began to growl.

"Mom he went out of the territory I followed him then we were attacked by the wolf from yesterday!" I screamed.

"Alright let's go get the alphas." Yes I did it. I thought as we ran to go find the alphas. After we got Nars, Fleet, Stinky, and Garth we ran to find Rat. The field had a scent of blood to it, Rat's nose was bleeding a lot, as for the other wolf he had a large scratch across his right eye and a bite mark on his shoulder. The black wolf charged and Rat moved out of the way quickly. The wolf slammed into a tree he got back up though now bleeding from the head and charged again.

"Judas stop this now!" Rat yelled at the wolf.

"Make the voices stop." The wolf pleaded and Rat sighed and lunged grabbing a hold of the wolf's throat and biting down. He didn't draw any blood but the wolf eventually stopped moving and Rat let go.

"Rat are you alright?" Dad asked as he walked over and picked up some multi colored flower and placed into the wolf's mouth.

"Help me get him back to my den." Rat said calmy as he tried to put the wolf on his back.

"Alright." After a struggle they got to Rat's den and placed the wolf down and left Rat with him on his own request.

Claudette's POV

"Claudette come on you'll be married by the time we have the bachelorette party!" Magril yelled towards me as I finished brushing my tail.

"Alright girls let's go." I said with me were the omega girls, Magril, and Cristie. We walked a little ways and noticed a small wolf also tagging along.

"Maria you can't come with us." Cristie said

"Like I would want to go with you all, and Rat said you all can't use the hot spring anymore." She said which was weird because that's where we were heading.

"Why not?" Cristie asked

"Well he said not to tell you if you asked so my lips are sealed." Maria replied a little too pleased with herself.

"Maria you better give me an answer." Cassie said and Maria ran off meaning we had to find out ourselves. We walked to den all of us a little pissed Rat wouldn't tell us himself, we noticed small traces of blood on the path there and we began to run. In the den Rat had leaves on his nose and was working on making something, there was another wolf who had a bite on his shoulder and scratch across his right eye.

"Rat what's going on here? What happened to your nose? Who is this wolf?" Cristie shot out quickly and the wolf stirred.

"Cristie not now." Rat said quickly as he dipped his paw in something and took of the leaves and spreaed some form of paste on his nose then on the injuries of the black wolf.

"When did you learn to do this?" Cristie asked

"Not now Cristie." Rat replied again as he got a turtle shell that was full of water and had something mixed into it. He placed it in front of the wolf who began to drink it.

"Rat I want answers!" Cristie yelled and Rat flashed her a menacing look.

"I'll explain later now leave." He said coldly, he pretty much killed our night because it suddenly became conspiracy theories and everything but at least I knew tomorrow night everything would be better.

Runt's POV

"Hand me those leaves." Rat commanded and I followed Cristie was waiting outside and boy was she pissed at Rat.

"That should do it." Rat said and his brother stood up. "Now give me a reason why I shouldn't spill your guts out right now?"

"I was exiled there were….voices….in my head that told me to…kill." Rat's brother said

"I figured that out you're schizophrenic but I'm not so I doubt it's genetic." Rat replied as Cristie walked in.

"Rat what did you give him?" She asked still angry.

"It doesn't matter it should keep him from hearing the voices though at least until we figure out the reason you went crazy." Rat replied and Cristie sighed.

"So no howl tonight….." She sounded really disappointed but I guess she realized this was really important to Rat. "I'll make sure Claudette knows your too busy."

"Thanks." Rat replied

"So is she your mate?" Judas asked

"Well actually I was going to ask her after the wedding but this takes priority." Rat replied as he walked over to a pile of herbs he had me pick.

"You really haven't change to much." Judas said and Rat laughed a little.

"Well I'm no longer mute so there's your change." And his brother snickered a little.

"Well I guess you have a point there."

"So why are you even here?" Rat asked.

"I was exiled." He replied and Rat sighed.

"I don't know if Cristie is going to want you staying here that long so we should work on finding you a place." I couldn't believe this the guy attacked Maria and Claudette and Rat wants him to be apart of the pack probably knowing Cristie will kill him when she finds out.

"Alright fine but it should be outside of the territory." His brother said as the two fist bumped. I left after a while seeing how Rat no longer needed my help and it was getting close to the wedding. Dad did my mane and tail and we were off. I got to sit in the front with Magril and next to my brother and Cassie. The ceremony began and I noticed Cristie leaving but I didn't want to cause a scene besides Stinky and my dad were actually about to cry so I couldn't just leave yet. Cassie noticed this and asked if he was ok.

"Yeah I'm fine." He sniffed as he rubbed his eyes with his paw as the last part finally ended. Now it was time for the howl. We all got in our positions and waited for Claudette and Fleet to start us off. Part of me hoped Fleet would sound like Garth, Lilly told me the stories of how he was so bad he killed birds. I always wanted to see if it was possible or not but sadly he sounded good and everyone began howling.

Rat's POV

"They sound good you should be out there with your girl." Judas said but I felt my place was here and besides I wanted to make sure he didn't go insane and ruin Claudette and Fleet's night but I did plan on purposing to Cristie tonight so I had to wait.

"Nah weddings aren't really my thing." I replied making the ironic joke he caught and laughed. As Cristie came walking over to the den now was my time.

"Cristie I have something to ask you." I said and she raised her ears.

"What?" She asked

"Will you marry me?" I asked and as if her night had done a complete 180 she was overjoyed.

"Yes you moron!" She hugged me tightly of course we decided to wait until tomorrow when we were going to be looking for a place for my brother to stay to tell everyone. The next morning the three of us got up and walked into the territory most of everyone was exhausted expect for Maria who was up and trying to get Lilly to come outside with her.

"Well Rat's here and he brought that wolf." She said and both Lilly and Garth shot up quickly. Garth got in front of Lilly who stood in front of the pups.

"Calm down this is my brother Judas he'll be staying in Jasper for awhile." I said and they eased up a bit. "And in lighter news Cristie and I are engaged." I said

"Wait you're joking right?" Maria asked

"No we really are going to get married." Cristie replied and after the congratulations came the questioning of what was going on with my brother.

"He won't be staying in the territory Garth we're going to look for a den that's just outside of it." I said

"Okay but two weddings in a row? I don't think the pack is going to be thrilled for that." Lilly said

"Well we decided it would be best to wait two weeks before having the actual ceremony." Cristie said after all that was cleared up with left my brother with them and headed to her parents. We didn't feel like having two shocks in one sitting was a good idea.

"Um mom I'm getting married." Cristie called out and her parents slowly rose up.

"Cristie with who?" Salty asked

"Rat dad." She said sarcastically as though it wasn't obvious.

"Well that's good but we're going to go back to sleep now." Sweets yawned

"Alright." Cristie said and the two of us went back to pick up my brother to go looking for den. We got out of the territory and we found a place not too far from my den. Cristie and I left to allow Judas to get settled in. We headed to Runt's den to tell him the news of course he was asleep on top of him was Magril.

"HEY!" I yelled directly into his ear and he shot up like a rocket with Magril.

"Rat! This better be important!" He yelled at me.

"Well it's not really." Cristie replied as everyone else in the den got up.

"Then what is it?" Magril asked.

"Well nothing really just Cristie and I are engaged is all." I said and he thought about it for a moment.

"Wait really?" Claudette asked as her mom and dad looked at each other.

"Yep we're engaged." Cristie said happily.

"And what about that wolf? Runt told us everything last night?" Fleet asked

"That's family business between me and him and no one else." I replied and Fleet gave a low growl.

"Fleet stop it." Claudette commanded and he fell silent. We left and headed back home to talk everything over since everyone seemed to have a hangover probably from eating fermented fruit, not that I've tried it.


	25. Chapter 25 Sisters

Chapter 25 Sisters

Maria's POV

"Can we hang out today Rat? Like just the two of us like we used to?" I asked he shook his head no.

"Maria I have to help Cristie and my brother today." He replied as he headed further down the path I stopped in front of him again.

"You never have time for me anymore!" I yelled at him and he sighed.

"Maria I'm sorry but I'm busy now maybe tomorrow." He said the next day came and once again he was too busy and told me tomorrow with the same result.

"Mom he won't spend any time with me." I said she looked at me with forgiving eyes.

"Well he has a lot to do now a days I'm surprised he has enough free time for Cristie." I hated Cristie she stole my brother and now he was getting married to her.

"I don't what's so great about her." I said as I paced back and forth.

"Why can't you just be happy for Rat?" Traves asked he and Fallo were all for Rat getting married without any concern that he might not be able to hang out with us anymore. It made me so mad that he would just get married without asking me if it was ok, I mean I was his sister. Where was Cristie during the winter gone who was there to hang out with him me. I stormed out of the den to find Runt, I informed him of my problem and he shrugged.

"The guy's in love I guess, I don't know what to tell you Maria it's not something that you can stop." He replied to me.

"YOU SOUND LIKE MOM!" I yelled and he quickly hushed me.

"Maria, don't you want Rat to be happy?" He asked and I sighed

"yeah still doesn't mean he has to leave me out all the time." I muttered and he patted my head.

"Just give it some time." He said but I wanted it to be now not later. I walked off and went to go see my cousin Claudette. She was looking at a den with her new mate Fleet.

"Hey Maria what brings you here?" She asked her stomach had gotten a tad bit larger than the last time I saw her.

"Rat not spending any time with me." I said she and Fleet looked at each other.

"Is this about Cristie again?" Fleet asked and I pouted.

"Yeah." I said and both of them groaned I hated talking to alphas they didn't know anything.

"So is it the wedding?" Claudette asked

"I just don't see why he's marrying her." I replied and Claudette snickered a little.

"Cristie has always been special to Rat and she's felt the same ever since they were age." I didn't need a history lesson I needed a solution.

"So she left and Rat started hanging out with me now that she's back he hardly ever sees me." I replied

"Maybe you should go talk to Rat about this." She suggested I groaned at the idea of going to see him and the girl who will not be named from this point on. Yes readers I'm so mad I broke the fourth wall so deal with it!

"And risk seeing *blank* with him no thanks." See told you will not be named.

"Yes." They said at the same time I groaned and stormed off to Rat's cave. I headed to the back of it where he informed me never to go without an adult. I jumped down into the spring and head further until I reached a three way. Innuendos aside, yes I know some of you thought of it like that getting back on track I headed through the one in the middle. It led me into another cave luckily there were tiny holes in the ceiling that provided light. I began running for some reason I didn't want to go back I just wanted to leave. But I came to a stop I couldn't runaway I was too young. I heard digging and saw a fox, I took off as fast as I could. Maybe I wasn't too young to run away. Yes I'm aware we've had a runaway story before but just keep reading it get's better.

"Maria!" I heard as a wolf dug down in front of.

"Rat?" I asked he frowned at me.

"What are you thinking Maria?" See different readers.

"You've been spending all your time with *blank*!" I screamed and he sighed before picking me up like mom did. He brought me out of the cave and sat me down.

"Maria, *blank* has been worried about you acting like this." Rat said I couldn't believe she would actually be worried about me. "Maybe you should spend some time with her."

"Fine I'll give it a try." This is the only part where the fourth wall will be broken for now at least.

Cristie's POV

"Are you sure about this Rat?" I asked as Maria pouted.

"Please just go along with this." He begged

"Alright I will on the condition that you'll start trying to mske more timer for the both of us." She looked at me, the two kissed and my day with Cristie began.

"What did you mean the two of us?" Maria asked

"Well you're not the only one who's been having trouble seeing him, his brother's condition seems to have taken up most of his time." I said and she seemed to feel guilty about something as we walked to the spot where the wedding was going to held.

"Why here?" She asked

"Well this was where we first fell in love." I replied and she gagged. "Oh stop it you'll find a wolf that suites you to."

"Well there aren't any pups except my brothers." She said "How did you know you wanted to marry Rat I mean he isn't exactly the cleanest wolf, or the best looking, or the strongest, or the brightest." I laughed a little.

"You're right but he is the most caring, the nicest, and he just takes my breath my way." I heard more gagging sounds.

"Ok I'll stop."

"Good cause you're going to make me barf." Maria replied I could tell this was going to be a long day. "So why did you leave the pack if you loved him so much?"

"I was in training to be the next healer, I didn't want to leave but Rat insisted that I go." I replied

"Oh." I could tell she really wasn't in to this, so I decided to do something I haven't done in a while.

"So Claudette and Fleet are at their new den right?" I asked she nodded.

"Why?"

"We're going to prank them." I replied and she lit up like she just heard the best news in the world. She followed me as we began setting everything up. Until Rat came and saw what we were doing with the berry juice.

"Cristie…..really you just can't let it go?"

"Well I mean your sister is enjoying herself. Besides you should hang out with my brother seeing how you two will be brother in laws soon." He groaned at the idea and walked off and I motioned for Maria to hurry up before he came back since my brother was with Sydney.

"So are you two happy together?" Maria asked it was nice she was so concerned about him.

"Yes we are, and I promise I won't let anything bad happen to him." I said and she finally fully relaxed.

"You promise?"

"Yes I promise."

"I guess I can get used to having an older sister." She said and we decided to give up on the prank and I took her home.


	26. Chapter 26 Wedding Bells

Chapter 26 Wedding Bells and The Grand Finale

Cristie's POV

"Are you nervous?" Mom asked as she brushed my tail, it was finally time for the wedding. There were butterflies in my stomach I couldn't wait.

"Yeah but I'm fine." I replied as Claudette walked in she smiled.

"You look great. Now let's go over the ceremony one more time." She said

Runt's POV

"Rat are you sure you're good? You have everything memorized right?" I asked the groom who was getting ready for his big day. After the wedding I was going to ask Magril to marry me so we were both nervous.

"Are you?" He replied the scratch on his nose had become a scar in the two weeks of preparation.

"Yeah I'm good but are you?" I replied and he laughed.

"Runt you're more nervous than any wolf I've seen today." He said and it was time I went over everything with him one last time and I watched him leave with Lilly to be taken to where the ceremony would be held. I didn't know why Cristie wanted it to be the creek but there was no arguing with her.

"Are you coming?" Magril asked she had her fur and mane done she looked great. I followed her to our seats which were in the front. We saw Cristie walking over to Rat she had a crown made of flowers on her head probably her mother's doing. She walked up to Rat and the ceremony began. I looked over to Garth who was actually crying along with Shakey and Salty.

"Are you three alright?" I whispered and they shooed me off.

"Runt stop talking." Magril whispered and I nodded as it finished up with them rubbing noses. The whole pack cheered and Maria ran out to them. Rat picked her up and threw her on to his back. Rat nodded to me and I took a deep breath as Magril turned to me.

"Will you marry me?" We asked at the same time quickly. We both gave a nervous laugh. "So that's a yes." We said in unison once again.

"Garth are you crying?" Rat asked and Garth gave him a big hug.

"It just seems like yesterday you two were pulling pranks on everyone." He said

"Garth I can't breathe." Rat said tapping the ground and Garth let go. A couple of week s after the wedding it was time for Claudette to have her children, of course Cristie and Candy where in there with her and Rat was holding his ears again just like he did when Lilly had her pups. " Finally we all heard the wailing of the new born pups and went in to see them.

"Two girls what do you want to name them?" Fleet asked

"How about Fauna and Tris?" Claudette said

"Alright." Fleet nuzzled her and we all heard the familiar gag of Maria in the background.

"Hey you'll find a boy and fall in love." Cristie said

"Never there's not a boy who can live up to my standards." Maria said proudly.

"And what exactly are those?" Rat asked

"He has to be adventurous, smart, fearless, funny, and most importantly hate the romantic stuff." Mari said.

Maria's POV

"Well readers this is where this story ends, but don't worry there will be more I promise."

"Readers? Maria what are you talking about?" Rat asked

"Nothing! And Thank SaibotVapor for helping move this along and for everyone who has supported this story and sorry the ending sucks so much."


End file.
